Hot roasted chestnuts

Hot roast chestnuts, Christmas market no 7

Another beauty was the very Victorian chestnut stall, complete with vendor wearing a top hat and waistcoat. Again the red, and the dark mauve sky - a killer combination. There were also coloured lights around the top of the stall and in the trees which were a detail too far for this little study but would definitely have a part to play in any future large studio painting. I am such a sucker for coloured fairy lights - especially the ordinary lightbulb sized ones, strung up in trees. Maybe I should go to Blackpool? Or... the Christmas lights at Mousehole, that's probably more my scene!

I did intend to take photos throughout the painting process but only managed two and then forgot. It gives you a good idea of the goings on though, and it's the way I've tackled all of these market paintings.

I start with a warm mid grey and do a general block in of mid-toned neutral areas. You'll notice I'm not doing any kind of drawing of shapes, just dealing in broad masses.

I then work in the darkest darks, again it's masses that I'm looking for here. You can't really tell with the photo but this is not a general black, but subtly different colours - some cooler, some warmer, some reddish, some more violet. 

From here I paint in the yellow and red colour group and then the blues and then the lightest highlights. 

Squinting all the while, I'm aiming for the structure or skeleton of the scene. The viewer can put the meat on the bones.

Magic and bubbles

Bubble stall, Christmas market no 6

Back to the Christmas market theme, which I can't get enough of at the moment, my favourite part was the bubble stall.  I will definitely be painting a studio version of this subject because it was a 'coup de coeur' moment, I knew it instantly. The red and white of the awnings against the dark stonework and dusking sky, the life and movement provided by the figures and the fun - oh the FUN - given by the vapour and bubbles moving upwards and out towards the sky!

So what I'm really enjoying at the moment is working these small (around 10" x 12") studies on Arches 'huile' paper. It's like a very lovely watercolour paper but it's oil primed and I love using it. The paintings can still be framed without glass, you just attach the paper to a board and varnish as usual.

Anyway, I will perhaps work on half a dozen small studies of this very subject, while exploring ideas about colour and composition for the larger painting. I find it very freeing, this way of working. The big challenge will be retaining the freshness on a larger scale. We'll worry about that later though :-)

Christmas market at dusk

Christmas market series no 3 - market at dusk

I love this one, it's got such mood and expression and again that economy of strokes which is what I'm always striving for - how to say more with less.

This is such a good time of year to reflect on where your work has been and where it might be heading in the year ahead. I'll certainly be giving some thought in the next few days to personal objectives and projects in the year ahead.

My biggest project in 2015, which I'm very excited to tell you about, is that I'm going to be writing a book about oil painting and I'm going to be starting on that very soon. I'm so excited! I'd love your help with that, if there is anything you struggle with or think should be included in the book then now is a great time to let me know as I'm only just beginning with ideas of topics to cover. Although the book will be written specifically about oil painting I want it to be full of painting advice that you can take to any subject and other mediums also. 

And very soon on my blog I'll be doing my annual review, as I find it really helpful to look back over the year past before making plans for the new year ahead. So in the meantime I can only say that I wish you a happy, healthy and fulfilling new year, and I look forward to seeing you in 2015 :-)

Mulled wine and hot chocolate

Mulled wine - hot chocolate
Christmas market no 2
24 x 30 cms

Continuing on with the Christmas market theme, this one concentrates on the action within the mulled wine stall. I particularly was after the warmth, the bright lights and the distorting effects of the steam. Again I tried very much to stick to big shapes apart from the odd bits of interest. I loved it in it's fairly abstract stages, shown below. I was very tempted to leave it at stage two but I do like people to be able to recognise the figurative subject matter and so I felt it didn't say enough about it yet. I don't know, maybe there's an abstract artist within me trying to burst through!

The mostly warm colour palette offset by those lavender/grey blues, and small touches of hot red, pleased me no end. I think when a painting speaks to you in this way, you just know that something about it will affect something you work on in the future at some point, like having a new arrow in your quiver. You don't need to be conscious about it, or try too hard, it will just infuse and develop within your repertoire. 

Stage 1 - darks

Stage 2 - large shapes - could have stopped here

Lovely blog readers, I need to ask your help with something. I've decided to rename this blog in the new year. At the moment it's called 'ma vie en couleurs' which seemed appropriate when I started as I was living in France at the time. Well I've been back in England three years and I need a new title. Don't worry, everything else about the blog stays the same.

But here's where I need you... can you think of a couple of words or a short phrase that describes me and my work and my usual blog content? Please drop me a line or even better leave a comment on this blog post so that others can see your ideas too. If you are reading this in your email inbox, you can redirect to my blog here. Thanks so much for taking the time :-)

Christmas market

Christmas market no 1 - mulled wine stall
10" x 12"

I loved the lights, colour and busyness of the Lincoln Christmas market that I visited a couple of weeks ago. I did find a place to set up and paint but it was away from where I wanted to be and I got very cold! After a couple of hours of painting followed by a warm up in a cafe I decided to walk around taking photos on my phone if anything caught my eye. It was very busy by then and day was turning into dusk which was the very best time for me.  I find it magical when the artificial lights start to take over from the light from the sky.

Since that day I've been developing the theme in the studio, and trying some new approaches. In many ways this is easier to do in the studio than en plein air, when it's best to get the job done as quickly as you can (especially in this weather!).

With this one I really wanted to keep the drawing quite fluid, so I started with painting large shapes and masses rather than a linear or drawn approach. If you imagine screwing your eyes up so that you can only see a blurred vision of the subject, that's how I began. 

I carried on with large shapes and then assessed which places needed more definition and which didn't.

I wanted to describe a little more the two central figures and the lights and decoration of the stall, but to leave the background group of figures as loose marks and large shapes. I think it's best this way as the figures look as though they are moving and populate the scene without dominating it.

You can probably tell I really enjoyed the whole process, I think it shows in the juicy paintwork!

Detail

Detail showing broad treatment of figures