About 50 people of all ages and body types showed up in the buff at the St. John's waterfront for a new TV arts show created by actor and director Mary Walsh.

It was minus 11, with a wind chill of minus 15, but that didn't deter the volunteers who showed up at 6 a.m. local time to strip down to their boots and scarves for the Saturday shoot.

About 50 people stripped down early Saturday morning for Mary Walsh's new TV show.
(Suzanne Woolridge/CBC)

"It was a little chilly, but liberating," said psychology student Chrissy Vincent, 24, who bared it all. "[It was] not as cold as I thought it would be."

Walsh, the Newfoundland performer who starred in  Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, is using shots of the bare backs and bottoms as part of her signoff for a new show she calls Nudity, Sexuality, Violence and Coarse Language.

Walsh was hoping for 500 nude bodies but said she's happy anyways.

"It was really thrilling," she said. "It's sort of like the Garden of Eden, but colder than I think it was in the Garden of Eden."

Said nude participant Mike Flaherty: "Halfway through I really started shivering almost uncontrollably.... I really had to concentrate and just think, 'Don't shiver too much.' "

Walsh intends to organize more naked film shoots across Canada. She said her next stop is Calgary, where she expects temperatures will be even lower than they were in St. John's. Other stops include Vancouver, Iqaluit and Toronto.

In an interview with CBC News earlier this week, the 55-year-old actor said she wanted the nude shoots to be a kind of homage to New York artist Spencer Tunick, who's photographed thousands of naked bodies in urban locations around the world.

"All across the country, we are only a bunch of people, and the truth of our realness is what we have. And we all have the same stuff — some people have a more expensive coat, but nobody has a more expensive bum."

Canadians who want to expose themselves for Walsh can sign up on her Facebook page.

With files from the Canadian Press