Yes, there's a whole bunch of snow. We got 25cm (10 inches for those who go by the imperial system) of snow in 24hrs! And it's still snowing... a little bit. I'm all excited because of the snow, which as I understand it, has buried most of the country. I had to go out and shovel twice the day before yesteray, again yesterday, and again today.

I love snow.

At any rate, this is much better than last year, when we had that ridiculous heat wave. The trees were growing leaf buds in the middle of December! It was weird. And kind of freaky.

But yes, snow always puts me in a good mood, so I've been feeling creative. And this leads me, of course, to an idea for a new project. Anyone who read my blog about the project I was working on a little while ago, the winter bird... ahem... 'holiday' cards, will understand what I mean when I say that I've now gotten lots of practice painting birds (the cards were watercolour and ink, featuring non-migratory birds). Now that I've finished that project, I feel ready to tackle one on a much larger scale.

That's right, my first really large painting! My mum unearthed a pad of 45cmX60cm (18"X24") watercolour paper. The package is unopened, because she usually works in acrylic or oil on canvas. So I have this big lovely space to work on!

I've decided to put all that bird painting practice to good use by doing a large painting featuring an unlikely collection of winter birds (unlikely in that one wouldn't normally see so many different kinds of birds together at once, winter or not...).

That being settled, I've already made arrangements for most of the things I'll need (I've asked my dad for a varnished watercolour board, paper tape is easily obtained at the local art store, and the same can be said for the colours that I'm a little low on), but I've already got a fairly serious problem: paintbrushes.

The local art store that I normally frequent has very recently changed ownership. The name has been changed, though not the nature of the store. The changeover in itself doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that they've decided not to carry the brand of paintbrushes that I prefer.

There's another art store in the area, so I went over there to see if they had the brushes I was looking for. The answer is, unfortunately, a no. At the moment, they're focusing on sable, which is no good for me.

Don't get me wrong, I know full well that sable brushes are wonderful brushes--for acrylic and oil. I know that they're pretty much the ultimate in softness and sensitivity. But that's the problem. See, I love my really small sable brush (it's literally only a few bristles), and I use it all the time, but larger sable brushes, because of their softness, suck water all the way to the top in a matter of moments. Their absorption power isn't an issue when you're working in thick paint, but with watercolour... well, I'm sure you get the idea. Personally, I like to work with the paint on the tip of my brush, so larger sable brushes pose a problem.

Now that I've pretty much explained the situation, I've a question to ask anybody who works in watercolour: What kind/brand of paintbrushes do you use, and why? I would greatly appreciate hearing your opinions. Normally I would just ask my mum, but she doesn't do much watercolour, so she just borrows my stuff for it. So please, if you've got a moment (and I'm guessing that you have got one, if you've read this far), and you work in watercolour, let me know.

Thanks.