Thursday 23 June 2011

Fun in five minutes!


Either at the beginning of a painting session, or at the end, I think it is a great idea to have fun with a watercolour sketch that should take you no longer than five minutes to complete.

Take any subject and a small piece of paper and simply paint, fast and loose!

Try not to make the sketch perfect, don’t get fiddly. Look at dark areas, look at light areas and decide before you pick up the brush where you are going to start.

With this ballerina, I wet the tutu area before starting. I wanted this to be diffused and “fuzzy” looking.

Mixing up a grey, I painted the bodice onto the dry paper, allowing the grey to mix into the water on the tutu. With the surplus grey on the brush, I stroked it into the tutu to suggest folds.

I then applied burnt sienna onto dry paper on the hair. Quickly mixing up a skin colour with raw sienna and alizarin crimson, I painted the neck and arms, allowing the paints to mix. As the paint was quite bold in colour, I added a brush clean water to the paper above the arm and allowed it to run down through the skin and bodice.

With mixes of alizarin crimson and Ultramarine blue I painted shadows on the legs and minimal shadows detail on the shoes just to indicate leg position.

PUT BRUSH DOWN!!!!

Fun and only five minutes MAX!!



Thursday 16 June 2011

Look on the bright side!

Having sat for an hour in the garden of a Holiday Cottage in the Lake District last year at midnight, watching a lone peanut butter sandwich on the grass in front of me waiting for the badger rustling in the bushes to appear, I was not down-hearted. I grabbed a glass of wine and stared up into the sky where, with the lack of light-pollution, the view of the stars was unbelievably beautiful.


The badger didn't appear but I still saw nature at it's best.


There's always a bright side :-)


Have fun tomorrow everyone.



Monday 13 June 2011

Going Quackers!












Thank you to everyone who is following my blog, I am really enjoying the extra time that I have to paint now that my exhibition has finished. But as ever, there is always something around the next corner! I'm enjoying painting for the 303 Gallery Summer Exhibition, titled "Splash" - I expect to finish these tomorrow. Then I'm looking forward to preparing for my next workshop and painting commissions.


We are planning a small family break soon, again it is to another lovely part of the country - I surely won't be able to leave my brushes at home, lol!!!



Friday 10 June 2011

Capturing your vision

Completing a painting that has captured your initial vision is a great feeling. I love Somerset and "Feeding Time on the Levels" leaves me feeling very grateful that I live in such a beautiful part of the country.

I have enjoyed painting Herons this week and I will return to painting them again soon. In the meantime, it's back to the "Splash" theme for the 303 Gallery!



www.kayeparmenter.co.uk

Thursday 9 June 2011

Teenage Kicks!



We have a Heronry in Somerset and I think this may possibly be the one featured in Springwatch on BBC1, televised this week.


I loved seeing the Heron Chicks and was totally inspired by the footage of them, set to the sound-track "Teenage Kicks".


Comical chicks with attitude! I believe that you can see the video footage on the BBC's website, under nature heading.


Paintings and cards will be available to view at the 303 Gallery Martock Summer Exhibition and I will donate 10% of sales to the RSPB.




Friday 3 June 2011

Upside down??

I truly believe that no subject should be out of bounds for a serious artist.

Also, within the boundaries of good technique, I believe that there should be no rules as to how we reach our objective.


This painting may make you smile when you visit the workshop page on my website.

www.kayeparmenter.co.uk/pages/site.php?pgid=288


Happy painting everyone........

Tulip Time - National Trust