Last Light

 The first painting of '25 and the next in my "Home Land" series. This one is set in Wyoming sort of (at least that is a version of the Tetons in the background) as I try to vary the landscape locations in this series. I felt that I should stop painting in lonely farmhouses and think of a variation on the theme and came up with a lonely car traveling through a vast landscape instead which I quite like as it gives me other possibilities and will lead on to the next painting that will have a lonesome car in it too. The metaphor of the home and the car within a vast landscape both hold up within the general theme behind this series so that is a handy development in terms of variation of content. The lighting is influenced by what I saw on my recent tour of US National Parks in the South West.

This the eleventh painting that I'm happy with of the fifteen I want to paint for my solo show "Home Land" coming up at the end of March at the Abend Gallery, Denver CO.

Oil on canvas 31 1/2" x 12".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Last Light - stage 6

 Still tinkering with the light on the mountains which is getting better but will be able to tell when the rest of the snow on the landscape is painted in. Didn't get a lot done today as I had an unexpected lunch with a friend that made a large hole in the afternoon so as the light was fading I decided to leave it until tomorrow.

Last Light - stage 5

 Still trying to get the mountains right and painted in a darker shadow area at the base to try and make the top of the mountains to glow a bit more. Need to look at it over tomorrow.s breakfast coffee and see if I am there yet before proceeding to paint in the land at the bottom.

Last Light - stage 4

 

I have made a start on the mountains and stopped  leaving the left side unpainted for the moment. There is something I feel I need to tweak on the areas that I painted today and I'm not sure what it is yet so I'm leaving it here and will have a look with fresh eyes over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee. 

New colour used: Quinacridone Red.

Last Light - stage 3

 Kind of finished the sky although that will depend on how the mountains go in and roughed in the base of the mountains after giving the landscape a desaturated blue wash. The placement of the car headlights can now be seen. The blue base of the mountain was interesting, I painted in originally a flat blue base that I was going to work on when dry but once I had made a few accidental marks that had erased some of the paint I decided that I liked the look of it and worked into the paint some more as it gave the mountains more interest and also knocked them back a bit which should help to get across the sense of vastness that I am always striving for.

Last Light - stage 2

 I first finished off the tonal underpainting (I have subsequently gave it a second pass) and painted the first colour pass on the sky ready for tomorrow when I make final decisions on the colours I'm going to use for the lit areas of the mountains over my breakfast coffee.

Colours used so far: Ultramarine Blue, Kings Blue Light, Manganese Blue Hue, Dioxazine Purple, Pale Violet, Lavender, Burnt Sienna, Brilliant Pink, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

A Review of 2024

Me at the Grand Canyon

A teaser...

 Now seems a good time to reflect on the year that has nearly finished and I have to say that bearing in mind that every year has good and bad times in them this has been a pretty good year especially after 2023 being a bit of a bummer. Both professionally and personally (the two are actually inseparable) I have to admit it has been a year to remember.

The first major highlight to be mentioned is the fantastic tour round the National Parks of the South West USA with three places ticked off my bucket list: Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Las Vegas. Although it was quite full on physically it was an unforgettable experience of day after day of landscape marvels and it seems like I was lucky to be on the tour as the company doesn't seem to run it any more. Ironically I have not really been able to use much of the reference photos I took for the "Home Land" series yet as a lot of the landscapes are very well known and iconic in themselves and don't quite fit the agenda of the series... looks like I will do another series later based on this trip.

The second highlight of the year I am only going to hint at presently as I need some more information but essentially I was filmed painting in North Wales for a national TV series that is to be broadcast in late January 2025. This will just be a teaser until I post more about it next month.....

The third major highlight was another trip to the USA in October to attend the IX art fair in Reading PA. Normally I go to IX and barely cover my costs with only a few sales made (it is however good to be there to make contacts with new collectors) with shipping and flights being the main expenses. This year was different- I sold seven paintings on the first night of the show with four going to one buyer alone. I then sold two more during the run of the show as well as selling two paintings that weren't even in the show while I was there. This meant for the first time ever that I didn't have to ship back any paintings to the UK. I left one unsold one in the safekeeping of the friends who I stayed with in Maryland, Morgan and Jean Bantly, as it may eventually sell to a buyer in the USA (my main market) and it will be easier and cheaper to ship from there. These sales incidentally made up for a relatively poor year otherwise...

So that was the year that was.... do I dare hope that 2025 will be as good?

My show at the beginning of IX

 

My show at the end...