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Finishing the Christmas market

12/24/2014

Apart from it being dry this time, It was a very similar day to last week, with low overcast cloud. I got there at about 2pm which gave me plenty of time to get the painting finished.
Unfortunately I had left my tripod plate which screws into my painting box at home AGGH (that's not exactly what I said) How was I going to do this? I visited a couple of camera shops with no luck, so I asked the very nice people at the hog roast stand for a chair, they did better than that and I had a table, brilliant! I had wasted quite a bit of time, but I was off.

The main things I needed to get on with were the Cathedral and a few more people, which I had been looking forward to. The Cathedral window was a challenge, as I didn't want to paint all the detail, but instead wanted a simplified version as it wasn't the main focus of the painting, the market stalls and people were.

As time was now an issue, I needed to concentrate, but as I am in the middle of a very busy place I do get attention and people wanting to chat to me, one man full of Christmas spirits chatted for about 15 minutes, and a lovely young art student gave me this sketch book to look through, but it all worked out fine, as this made me stay a bit later and I got to see all the lights come on so I could add them in.

It would have been lovely to have the Christmas tree all lit up in, which was just out of my painting on the right, so that will be one for next year. view this painting in the gallery

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Christmas market on the Cathedral Green

12/17/2014

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12th December -
As Its Christmas, there is loads going on, so painting time this week is just today. After a good scout around I settled on a composition of the Christmas market and the cathedral, as the market will be gone very soon.
It had rained a bit, so I had some nice wet reflections to paint.
Including a lot of the cathedral in the painting, ment there was a lot of drawing going on, and simplification was the order of the day with that.

After not to long, I knew this was going to be a two visit painting, so I kept a nice ,quick but steady pace and got most of the main stuff done, getting some people in early, helped me with perspective and scale.
I wanted to get the little coffee van in as it had such great character and gave the cathedral scale, but seeing through the crowds of people as they came out of the guided tours in the Cathedral was really difficult, as i was only getting glimpses of it!

It was Time to stop when a lorry with a crane turned up to take away a pallet which i was using to put some of my gear on, so had to stand well clear for a while. This did give me time to have a think, and stand back from my painting and evaluate it.
I think I would like a lot more people in it, especially on the right, But that would be for next time...
Would love to know your comments though! - Mark

The painting, Half way through -

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Christmas lights on Gandy St

12/6/2014

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4th December
On the way up on the train I had the thought to check out the lights in Gandy st as the last time I was there they hadn't been on.

I knew the lights would come on at about 3 ish now so I had plenty of time to scout for other places and subjects. I went back to Gandy st and decided to set up at the other end this time, outside the Phoenix art collage and the beautiful RAMM building as I liked all the colours and the lights in the Moko shop.

I got back from my scout only to find about a thousand six year old's waiting to go to an exhibition just where i was going to pitch up! They took about 15 minutes to clear, so had a little think about how I on earth I was going to paint all this.

I started the painting at about one, so I had time to get the composition and drawing sorted, all the time trying to keep it all a bit darker to make the lights shine when they came on.There were lot's of art students walking past so I was expecting some critique, but all I spoke to were very nice.

Big cars, Vans and buses all had quite a bit of trouble getting in and out of the Phoenix Collage which inconveniently blocked my view for a few minutes at a time, so I ended up being a Traffic helper too.
I forgot my camera phone today (duh) so I didn't get any pic's of me painting it, apologizes. - Mark

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The Christmas lights and shoppers 10 x 8 ins

12/1/2014

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Thursday 27th November
I got to the Cathedral green in the afternoon as I wanted to check out the Christmas markets lights but it was a tricky place to set up my rig, in the end i loved the look of the shop Orvis which had its lights on, the tea on the green and Martins lane in the background which made some interesting light and dark abstract shapes.

I had been painting for about 30 mins when it started pouring down, I tilted my panel forward so it didn't get so wet which can help, a little rain is fine, I really like all those reflections! but it kept coming down, and in the end I couldn't get the paint to stick on my panel anymore, or though it does create some interesting effects with the paint, But I had to give it up for now, and went home early.

The next day I got there at about 3 pm, it was a similar light, so I set to work, I wanted to leave in as much of the rainy effects as I could, but did have to change a few things
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It was getting darker and darker and the lights were getting lighter and brighter so I went with it and was pleased I did, its not usually something I would do.
When I came too, I realized what the time was, 4 30!!? I had to pick up my little boy from after school club at 5 30! so I had a sprint to the train station and was in luck, a train in 10 mins!
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Finishing the Christmas market

Christmas market on the Cathedral Green

Christmas lights on Gandy St

The Christmas lights and shoppers 10 x 8 ins

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