Waiting For The Sun sold

Llewellyn Alexander gallery near Waterloo in London have just sold "Waiting For The Sun", the first of my "small paintings" that I did in 2012. All in all I have done quite well with them so far, this is the eleventh to sell, mostly in this year.

Angkor - stage 1

At last! I am able to start painting again after a hiatus of three months......this is the piece that will go in Mike Pfifer's "Lands And Legends" book. This painting will to some extent be a hybrid between my Fantasy work of years ago but executed in my current relatively painterly style. This is a VERY rough preliminary drawing that has had a tonal Burnt Sienna/Indian Red underpainting over it to establish the approximate arrangement of where things are going. I am going to avoid using any cold colours and will probably employ a gamut map as explained by James Gurney to try and organise the colours to get across the atmosphere of hot jungle  and decaying ruins. Actually I have been there and the vegetation is not as lush as one would expect but here I am depicting how most people imagine it as I want a more fantastical feel to the picture. In line with my current plans for my work this year I am working bigger at 27" x 36" and is on MDF board as I could not find any pre-stretched canvas at this size or proportions.

Seafront Moon sold

A nice lady from Bath has just bought "Seafront Moon", the tenth one to sell of my "Small Paintings" with seven sold through the internet.

"Chrysler Blues" sold

Llewellyn Alexander gallery near Waterloo in London has just sold "Chrysler Blues", one of my recent paintings on canvas.

Another painting sold on Artfinder

Night In Castello

I am happy to say that I have sold my third (or is it fourth?) painting through Artfinder, "Night In Castello".  I am very pleased to have my work on this site as it seems to be seen all over the world with genuine buyers logging on to it. I will have a couple of pictures featured in their Advent Calendar campaign and am featured today in their newsletter of paintings connected with rain, with "Ninth And Hudson".

Ninth And Hudson

New Directions?

When the Brighton Art Fair was over I was feeling very flat and disheartened by my progress in the world of so-called "Fine Art". I really wasn't sure what to do next - I didn't see the point in painting any more of what I had already done, whether it was Plein Air, still life, Brighton, urban etc etc. It was all covered by a plethora of artists and I didn't want to add more pictures to the Unsold Paintings Mountain.....or at least the Unwanted Paintings Mountain. Fortunately I was called away from my home and studio to deal with family concerns while my father was in hospital and was happy to stop thinking about all of this while other issues took priority. After about a month I received a commission for a Pre Raphaelite influenced painting from a good friend and his wife which I was happy to accept as it provided me with an interesting subject that I could get on with in the mean time particularly as they want it in the style of Waterhouse which would be a nice painterly approach. I then attended the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton initially just to meet up with some old friends from illustration days where I was approached by Michael Pfifer who wanted me to contribute a painting to a book project called The Fantasy Illustration Library, mine being for the "Lands And Legends" book; I chose Angkor Wat as the subject as I had been there two years previously and had always wanted to do a painting of it anyway.

During the course of a very pleasant evening some of my artist friends suggested that I show my work at the Illuxcon convention in the USA next year although they felt that I was probably too late to enter the selection process. I mulled this over and decided to contact Patrick Wilshire who curates the show just on the off chance through Facebook. I was amazed when he replied and offered me a guest spot in the Main Show without having to go through the selection process! All this threw me into a state of mild confusion as this was a direction I had never previously contemplated and I was concerned that I had no desire or intention to go back to the world of pure Fantasy Illustration as such and decided to make him aware that I was not going to show paintings of Dragons, Castles, Maidens in Distress etc if I decided to accept his kind invitation. I would be painting pictures specifically for the show as I had very little here that would fit the show as such and wanted to make this clear to him. 

He replied to say that he liked my current work and would be very happy to see the work that I would produce as it could be a different approach to the specific theme of the show, Imaginative Realism. As you can see from the flyer I have accepted and am looking forward to painting some larger pictures that will combine my current painterly approach with subject matter of a more imaginative content that I hope will be distinctive and could perhaps be a bridge between the worlds of Fine Art and Imaginative Realism, a land less populated with artists and where perhaps I can make more of a mark! I will however still continue to paint pictures for exhibition in galleries when the inspiration takes me.

East 42nd Street sold

I have just sold another painting on Artfinder, "East 42nd Street". I have sold a number of paintings this year on the net, from Artfinder, the Artists & Illustrators magazine website and off my own website. It seems that people are getting more and more used to buying art off the net without actually having seen the original. I hope this continues!

Apologies for no new posts!

I regret that I am still away from home helping my parents while my father is in hospital, I estimate that it will be a couple more weeks before I am able to get on with painting etc. Apologies for no new work on this blog in the meantime!

An apology for lack of posts

Eagle-eyed viewers of my blog will have noticed a distinct lack of posts recently. This is due to my father being in hospital in a different part of the country necessitating me being away from home for long periods. This has also meant that I have produced no new paintings for three weeks. This situation I regret will continue until my father is well enough to go home and normality will hopefully return at which point I will be able to get back to my home and start painting again.

Recent sales

Street Corner Symphony

It has been a pretty good month for sales this September with two paintings sold at the Brighton Art Fair, "Street Corner Symphony" and "Midnight Promenade" and another, "Easy Street", sold through an internet gallery called Artfinder. The Artfinder sale is very encouraging as it seems to indicate that art buyers are increasingly willing to buy off the internet at good prices without actually having the seen the painting in the flesh as it were.

Midnight Promenade

Easy Street

Brighton Art Fair

Apologies for lack of recent postings on this blog but I have been called away to Leicester while my father is in hospital. I have been able to rush back to Brighton and put up work on my stand at the Brighton Art Fair in the Corn Exchange. The Private View was last night and am happy to report that I sold a painting to a couple that have a number of my paintings already - that makes a big hole in covering my expenses but still need to sell another £300.00's worth of paintings just to break even.....
If there is anyone reading this in the Brighton area please come along, the opening times are:
Friday 20th September   11.00 - 7.30
Saturday 21st                  10.00 - 6.00
Sunday 22nd                   10.00 - 5.00

The Lonesome Road

A lonesome petrol (gas) station late in the evening, it could be anywhere...and it's closed. I fancied doing a moody slightly surreal painting using a lot of silhouettes and used a linen canvas that I had around as I thought it might suit this shape as opposed to my usual square format. I think that I prefer painting on canvas although I suspect that if I used a top quality linen I might change my mind. 20" x 16" oil on linen.

The Lonesome Road - stage 4

Getting a better idea where it is going now. I am going to finish it using glazes as there are lots of adjustments to make before it looks like how I see it in my mind.

The Lonesome Road - stage 3

Put in the basic underpainting today using a mix of Phthalo Turquoise and Permanent Orange as the root colours for the blues. Things need to get darker and moodier tomorrow.

Artists & Illustrators magazine - "Masterclass" on their website.

Artists & Illustrators magazine are currently featuring a "Masterclass' of mine from a couple of years ago on their website called "How to paint sunlit scenes" and is about how I painted "Summer In The City".  They are breaking it up into three parts and releasing each part daily from today. Here is the link:

http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/how-to/oil-painting/964/how-to-paint-sun-lit-scenes-part-one

The Lonesome Road - stages 1 and 2

I'm planning on entering this for either the New English Art Club or The Royal Institute Of Oil Painters annual competitions at the Mall Galleries...or indeed both. Hopefully a moody painting of a lonesome petrol (gas) station somewhere unspecific, could be the USA could be anywhere. Pretty much a flat plain behind it, quite dark apart from the lights in the roof and the wan pool of light on the forecourt directly below. First "drawn" up with Ultramarine Violet and Liquin followed by a wash of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Violet thinned with Liquin and turpentine. This will be my first painting on linen.

I Love You

This was originally an idea I had for Valentines Day but never got round to this shameless piece of commercialism until now when I thought that it might be a nice picture to show at the upcoming Brighton Art Fair. The timing is quite good on another level as well as although there are a number of meanings (in my mind) to this painting it could be seen as a riposte to all the Brighton-bashing recently seen in the national press. The colours were kept very warm with a red/orange - green/blue complementary combination. 15 1/2" x 15 1/2" oil on canvas.

House & Garden magazine - October 2013 issue

House & Garden magazine has used my painting "Cuckmere Haven" for the listing for the Brighton Art Fair in the "Diary" section on page 112 of the October 2013 issue. 

I Love You - stage 4

I just need to finish the lollipop and it will be ready for the glazes.

I Love You - stage 3

Got down the underpainting today, getting a better idea of how the colours are going to work. I am planning on glazing some yellows and oranges over the finished painting as I don't want it to look too chalky which happens when you use a lot of white in the mixes. I am trying to keep it quite light in tone but with rich, warm colour.

I Love You - stages 1 and 2

An idea I had for a painting earlier in the year for a picture for Valentines Day, I thought that I would paint this as a shameless stab at commercialism and get it done for the Brighton Art Fair. There are (in my mind) a number of meanings to this picture but I thought that it could have an extra one due to the amount of Brighton-bashing that has been going on in the press recently. It was first "drawn" up with Ultramarine Violet and Liquin and then when it was dry given a wash of thinned-down Burnt Sienna with a touch of Permanent Orange. This will be a nice background colour for the Red/orange - blue/green colour combination that I intend the painting to be based around. Incidentally in case you hadn't realised, it is a sticky lollipop on Brighton beach.

Cannaregio Fog

Another foggy Venice painting, Cannaregio is a district or sestiere of the city away from the tourist hot spot of San Marco. Winter is a good time to go to Venice as it is relatively quiet and when walking around it on a foggy day or at dusk is very mysterious - shades of "Don't Look Now" the movie. The picture is based around a violet-green combination as I feel these colours go together very well and is a chance to try and get that particular green that the water in Venetian canals has.  This painting, along with it's companion picture "La Nebbia" will be exhibited at the forthcoming Brighton Art Fair in September. 16" x 16" oil on canvas.

Cannaregio Fog - stage 3

Didn't like the sky colour so changed it from a pinky colour to a very light violet, it is then a nice counterpoint to the green in the water. I will make the background foggier tomorrow and work on the gondola and water.

Cannaregio Fog - stage 2

After "drawing" it up yesterday in Ultramarine Violet and Liquin, I allowed it to dry overnight before laying down a wash of Terre Verte over all the picture except the sky first thing this morning. By early afternoon it was dry enough for me to mix some paint up and lay down the underpainting. The mixes were made of varying quantities of Titanium White, Permanent Orange, Venetian Red, Ultramarine Violet, Viridian and Ultramarine Blue with some Liquin added so that it will be dry for tomorrow.

Cannaregio Fog - stage 1

I thought that I would paint another limited palette picture of Venice in the fog as the last one was so popular and it is often a good idea to paint pictures as pairs. Cannaregio is a district or Sestiere of Venice. I think that I will have a single figure in this one, probably walking towards us on the left.

Mardi Gras World

Mardi Gras World is (hopefully still is after Hurricane Katrina passed through) a repository of carnival heads and other oddities in a large hangar-like structure in a suburb of New Orleans. I was there some years ago for a convention when I saw this at the entrance, an alligator head placed surreally in a suburb of Shotgun Shacks (maybe the subject of a painting to come). I have darkened everything but the sky for atmospheric effect and also to try and hide the alligator head tonally within it's surroundings so that it is hopefully not seen immediately on first viewing. I chose a complementary colour axis of basically yellow and violet, the greens and blues have a lot of violet mixed in too. I am planning to enter this for The Discerning Eye art competition/exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London. 16" x 16" oil on canvas.

Mardi Gras World - stage 3

As the sky was still a bit wet I got on with the rest of the picture. I mixed various tones and hues of green, purple and blue and painted in the dark part of the painting. Apart from the sky I may now only need to put some glazes over the rest of the picture tomorrow to get it to the values that I want. The whole painting is based on a complementary axis of yellow and violet.

Mardi Gras World - stage 2

I have decided to paint the dark areas in mixes of transparent Ultramarine Violet, Viridian and Ultramarine Blue with complementary yellow and orange in the sky. The dark areas need to be dark and rich in colour while the sky will be a slight lemon yellow with just some hints of orange near the horizon. I am planning to enter this for the Discerning Eye art competition if it turns out how I want; I think it could be sufficiently quirky to catch the judges' eyes...maybe!

Artists & Illustrators magazine - my Masterclass article is published.

The September issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine contains my article on "Adding Depth With Colour" as a Masterclass feature. It shows a step-by-step progress through the eight stages of my Indian painting "A Sidestreet In Madurai".  The painting itself will be exhibited at the Brighton Art Fair in September.

Mardi Gras World - stage 1

After finishing "La Nebbia" this morning I spent the afternoon "drawing" up this scene just outside New Orleans that I visited some years ago. "Mardi Gras World" is a huge hangar-like building (I hope it's still there after Hurricane Katrina came through) in a suburb of New Orleans (lots of Shotgun Shacks here that could be the subject of another painting) where a large collection of giant masks and heads are stored from previous Mardi Gras parades. The idea for the painting hangs on a dark almost monochromatic foreground and mid-ground set against a bright late afternoon sky. I want it quite dark, although rich in colour so that at first you don't notice the surreal placing of the alligator head that sits at the entrance to the attraction. This was "drawn" up with a mix of Ultramarine Purple and Liquin with some tone added to make the build-up quicker when I add the next layer tomorrow.

La Nebbia

"La Nebbia" means fog in Italian and is another of my "soft" paintings on canvas. I find that canvas is an ideal surface to paint in a "soft" way, this picture being much more monochromatic than recent more colourful paintings. The setting is very near the Rialto on the Grand Canal in Venice, the building at left (the subject of a previous painting a couple of years ago) is on the Fondamenta de la Preson. It was very different when I was actually there, the lighting here is invented; the primary reason for the painting was to try to achieve the diffuse, relatively monochromatic lighting and mood I wanted, the subject is just the setting I chose to try the idea out. This was painted over a previous try at a foggy Venice scene, also called "La Nebbia" which can be seen in it's early stages on this blog. 16" x 16" oil on canvas.

La Nebbia (again) - stages 1 and 2

Well here we go again with my foggy Venice picture which is being painted on top of the first version after I painted over it with a mix of Titanium White, Venetian Red and Ultramarine Violet. This version is using the same colours as the first but with a better composition and missing out a figure as there is nowhere really to put one. I "drew" it up with Ultramarine Violet and roughly blocked in some tone before being left to dry overnight. Today I put in the underpainting  with the above colours, some Kings Blue Light and a bit of Naples Yellow all mixed with some Liquin for quicker drying.

Terri Blue

Finally finished it after lots of tiny tweaks! If you follow the step-by-step of this painting earlier in this blog you will see that this is kind of how I intended, the figure dominated by the colour. The painting needs to be seen in the flesh as it were as it is very hard to photograph due to the figure being relatively faint due to the scumbles. washes and glazes that have gone over the top of it. I seem to be in a soft and mysterious phase at the moment, the next painting is planned to be a return to the fogs of Venice, "La Nebbia". Oil on canvas 16" x 16".

La Nebbia - abandoned!

I abandoned "La Nebbia" today and painted a pink-grey wash over the whole picture - a new "La Nebbia" will rise from the ashes! Basically I was unhappy with the composition and couldn't think of a way of resolving it so I decided to cut my losses and think of a better image to get across this picture/mood of a fog in Venice.

Terri Blue - stage 5

This painting is getting harder and harder to photograph as it gets bluer! I gave it a wash of a semi-opaque mix of Kings Blue Light and Emerald Green over the background followed by a glaze of Manganese Blue thinned with Liquin over the whole painting this morning.

La Nebbia - stage 4

After working on "Terri Blue" in the morning I spent the afternoon building up some colour on "La Nebbia". I am now thinking that it needs something in the foreground to break up the line where the canal bank meets the water, probably one or maybe two mooring posts for instance.

Terri Blue - stage 4

Another wash of Manganese Blue on the background and pretty much finished the figure. I will now leave it at least a day for the paint to dry on the figure and then start the final washes and glazes.

La Nebbia - stage 3

After getting on with "Terri Blue" in the morning I spent this afternoon blocking in some tonal violet greys on "La Nebbia". It is of course set in Venice although I have not chosen any well known location as it is unnecessary, the painting is about mystery, mood and colour.

Terri Blue - stage 3

Another wash of Manganese Blue thinned with Liquin and turpentine on the background and some preliminary painting on the figure. Once the figure is finished a series of blue washes and glazes will follow to the whole picture.

La Nebbia - stages 1 and 2

While I wait for the washes and glazes to dry on "Terri Blue" I thought that I would get on with a painting that is completely different, "La Nebbia" (fog in Italian). In contrast to the rich colours of recent paintings this one will be tonal and desaturated in colour, based on a yellow/violet complementary scheme. Most of the painting will be in desaturated violet greys apart from one yellow light on the wall near the far end of the bridge and it's reflections in the water. It was first "drawn" up in the "black" I had left over from "Terri Blue" in the morning and then a wash thinned with Liquin and turpentine of a mix of Dioxazine Purple, Transparent Maroon and Ultramarine Blue was applied with a rag over the whole canvas in the late afternoon.