http://www.lemonparade.co.uk en-gb lemonparade.co.uk 2011-4-3T00:00:00Z lemonparade.co.uk http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#90823 My sister and I have recently started a stall at St Georges Market Belfast. I painted a series of still life paintings of daffodils specially for it and will be painting a different flower for each week. St Georges is a beautiful covered Victorian market and the atmosphere is fabulous. 2011-4-2 16:40:47 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#79120 I bought a pochade box to do some outdoor painting. A pochade is basically a small box that is an easel and storage box all rolled into one they used to be adapted from cigar boxes httpwww.pochade.co.ukabout Its the perfect size for quick outdoor painting compact easy to use. I went out to Shaws Bridge in Belfast with a friend yesterday and did a couple of quick paintings 20 mins each. 2010-10-30 18:54:40 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#71921 Recently Ive been painting straight from life giving myself a time limit of an hour maximum as an exercise. Also its useful for using up old pieces of board and dregs of paints Below are some examples of 10 30 minute paintings. 2010-8-2 12:04:27 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#57898 This is the finished experimental blue painting approx 60cm x 40cmThis week Im continuing with preparing a painting that has been commissioned by friends. I started preparing earlier this year firstly working out colour combinations and presently am editing ideas for what will feature in it. It has been a very enjoyable process and am looking forward to seeing what develops in the next couple of weeks. 2010-2-7 12:27:55 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#52600 This weekend Ive started a new painting using acrylic paints. Until recently Ive predominantly used oil paints and Ive found the transition difficult. Ive found it hard to achieve the intensity of colour that I can get from oil paints. So in order to try and work out how to get the best out of acrylics Im doing a series of paintings based on single colour ranges beginning with green blues. 2009-11-15 11:52:04 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#51734 Drawings and watercolour sketches of the winter weather. 2009-11-1 13:16:50 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#50959 This week Ive continued to sketch with watercolours though on a slightly larger scale. These sketches are roughly 20cm x15cm. 2009-10-19 19:04:42 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#50387 A while ago I bought a variety of A1 sheets of watercolour and cut them into small pieces roughly 8 x 10 cm. These are a handy portable size that can be slipped into a notepad and carried about easily. Ive always found watercolour very difficult to use effectively and decided to start using the medium to make quick colour sketches with. It has been a beneficial exercise the small scale and need for speed sketching the outdoors forces you to make quick decisions and avoids over analysing what colour to use. The results are rough but are a great shorthand for memory and useful as ideas for larger paintings. 2009-10-11 11:41:47 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#49930 Getting ready to start a new batch of paintings. I have pieces of linen just the right size to fit old stretcher bars and have been preparing the linen canvas for priming. My cat decided to assist in this process.The Colonel is a sizeable cat over 6 kilos so I had to wait for him to finish his display. 2009-10-3 13:29:46 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#49463 Ive continued with small scale sketches dividing the pages of my A6 notepad in two and working quickly with either graphite or black colouring pencil the dimensions of each drawing are approx 8cm x 7cm 2009-9-26 13:18:07 http://www.lemonparade.co.uk/page8.htm#49085 Recently Ive been concentrating on drawing and Ive found this book by Jeffery Camp very helpful indeed It has all sorts of ideas to stimulate varied approaches to drawing and also refers to many artists and their work.Following a mention of Constables tiny sketches I found a fantastic pagebypage view of one of Constables sketch books on the V amp A website. Heres a link to it httpwww.vam.ac.ukcollectionspaintingsgalleriesdisplayconstableindex.htmlInspired by this I divided the pages of my A6 notebook so that its the same size as Constables drawings and have been doing quick sketches outside. Alas not the wonderful standard of Constable but am enjoying the attempt 2009-9-20 11:30:38