Midgard

Midgard is the realm of Man in Norse mythology which JRR Tolkein called Middle Earth in his books, the towering mountains in the distance could be Asgard, realm of the Gods. The painting is based on the landscape of the Lofoten Islands in Norway which I thought would be appropriate to the Norse mythology theme and has influences of Albert Bierstadt, the Hudson River School and Eugen Bracht running through the picture. This is the first what I would call Fantasy Landscape I have painted in 15 years and is based around a yellow/violet complementary colour axis in which I have tried to give it a strong composition by playing with values and keeping the lightest area of the painting in the top right corner. There is a step-by-step progress through the painting on preceding posts of this blog and is another picture that I will consider taking to Illuxcon in September. 39 1/2" x 15 3/4" oil on canvas.

Midgard - stage 7

I have finished the foreground slopes and the water and made a start on the foreground beach so hopefully I will finish this tomorrow. I am glad I kept the lightest part of the picture just in the top right corner as this will draw the eye firstly to the landscape and then to the foreground Viking boat which I didn't want to dominate the painting.

Three paintings sold by Asgard Arts

From Cleopatra's Needle

I am happy to report that three paintings were sold yesterday by Asgard Arts to a buyer in Haslemere, UK. They were "From Cleopatra's Needle", "Blackfriars Morning" and "Low Tide, Bankside" all 18 1/2" x 18 1/2" oil on board.

Blackfriars Morning

Low Tide, Bankside Pier

Midgard - stage 6

I have managed to get some work done on the foreground slopes but now have to go to London to drop off some paintings to a gallery so I will not get any more painting done on this until tomorrow.

Midgard - stage 5

Well I think I have finished the mountains in the back and middlegrounds, I have made a start on the fog bank and done a little bit of work on the foreground mountain slope.

Midgard - stage 4

This is strange, yesterday's post of Midgard 3 seems to have disappeared. Oh well here is stage 4 in which I have refined yesterday's work on the sky and have made large inroads into working on the line of peaks in the middle distance. The distant mountain peaks could be interpreted as Asgard, realm of the Gods, separated from Midgard, the realm of Man in the foreground by ranges of increasingly inaccessible mountains. Blimey, this is the first fantasy landscape of mountains that I have painted in something like 15 years!

Midgard - stage 2

I have roughly put in some colour over the whole painting to give me an idea as to where it is going. I am basing it on a yellow/violet complementary colour axis with the lightest part of the picture in the sky at top right as I want to have a strong design structure to it; I am now thinking that I may perhaps need something in the bottom left corner area to balance with the top right. The curl of mist was always planned to be there to give some movement to the picture and to echo the shape of the boat which incidentally I have lengthened a bit. The Eugen Bracht influence should now be coming apparent...

Midgard - stage 1

"Midgard" may or maybe isn't a working title for this picture. It is a landscape in the tradition of Albert Bierstadt, the Hudson River School and Eugen Bracht; dramatically lit with ever-receding mountains and cloud with a Viking boat drawn up to shore in the foreground. It is based on the landscape of the Lofoten Islands in Norway, hence the title (Midgard is the land of men in Norse mythology, or Middle-Earth as Tolkein called it) and the Viking boat. This tonal underpainting was put in with a rag using a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and turpentine.

Store Street Gallery

I have just delivered the first two paintings of six for an exhibition called "All At Sea" at the Store Street Gallery in Bloomsbury, London. It will run from 17 April to 10 May, the theme being all things coastal including seascapes and I will post up the six paintings I am exhibiting nearer the time. I believe that they came across my work at last year's Brighton Art Fair.

Ninth and Hudson sold

I have just sold my fifth painting through Artfinder, this time to a buyer in the USA, "Ninth and Hudson". This was painted in 2008 during my "wet streets in New York" phase.....18 1/2" x 18 1/2" oil on board.

Moonlight

When I was painting "Spirit Of The Falls" I realised that I wanted to paint a moonlit sky with a lot of clouds but I didn't think that a busy sky would suit the composition so I resolved to paint another one but with a much simpler foreground, hence "Moonlight". I have always loved figures against clouds and sky, it somehow gives a more mythical feel so here we just have a figure sitting on a rocky promontory framed by a moonlit sky a` la Atkinson Grimshaw with a bit of Maxfield Parrish in the mix as well. It is based on a red/orange - green/blue complementary colour axis again, oil on canvas 15 3/4" x 15 3/4". A step-by-step progress of this painting precedes this post on my blog. This is another painting for possible inclusion in Illuxcon in September.

From Cleopatra's Needle

This is being posted for Asgard Arts! A painting of one of the Sphinxes at Cleopatra's Needle by the Thames. Oil on board 18 1/2" x 18 1/2".

Moonlight - stage 4

I added some more clouds on the left, put in the river landscape and made a start on the foreground rocks. When the sky has dried I am thinking of giving it a subtle yellow glaze but that will have to wait as I will be away from the studio from Thursday to Sunday.

Moonlight - stage 3

After a three day break away from the studio I painted in the sky which I have stopped here to look at it in the cold light of tomorrow morning as I had it in my mind that the whole sky is full of moonlit clouds but I do quite like this more dynamically composed one that I have largely invented.

Moonlight - stages 1 and 2

When I was painting "Spirit Of The Falls" I realised that I wanted to paint a moonlit sky with a lot more cloud in it so I resolved to paint "Moonlight" next. I needed to keep the sky fairly simple to contrast with the busy landscape in "Spirit Of The falls" and I didn't want to lose the sweep of the moonlit cloud as it was very much part of the composition structure. "Moonlight" will be very simple, a moonlit sky `a la Atkinson Grimshaw behind a figure sitting on a rocky promontory; a blue/green bright sky with the foreground in middle to dark value saturated colour based around red/oranges. There will be a small moonlit river landscape in the bottom left corner. Stage one was painted in using a rag with a mix of Burnt Sienna and a touch of Dioxazine Purple thinned with turpentine and Liquin. Stage two is a basic colour block-in based on the chosen blue/green - red/orange complementary axis.

Spirit Of The Falls

The step-by-step progress through this painting with the working title "River Sprite" precedes this post on the blog. The scale of the figure which you hopefully don't immediately spot has been made slightly too small for a human and is meant to suggest a Naiad or other such similar nature spirit sitting by a waterfall on a moonlit night. There are influences of Atkinson Grimshaw and Maxfield Parrish here as regards to the moonlight and lighting but I have hopefully not made it look like a Victorian painting by using a panoramic format (taking it away from a classic picture format) and basing it on a generally red/orange - green/blue complementary colour axis. Oil on canvas 39 1/2" x 15 3/4". This is another painting that I will consider taking to Illuxcon later in the year.

River Sprite - stage 6

Painted in the rest of the picture bar the figure today although I might change some of the water tomorrow. I still like the idea of calling it "Spirit Of The Falls".

River Sprite - stage 5

Painted in the left side of the picture making to sure to leave a few patches of the underlying Burnt Sienna showing through. I then made a start on the water but decided to leave it until tomorrow as I want to put a bit more thought into which colours I am going to use.

River Sprite - stage 4

After a day away from working yesterday I managed to get a lot of work done today on the rocks in the foreground. Thinking about calling it "Spirit Of The Falls"....

River Sprite - stage 3

I have put in the clouds and the distant mountain and made a start on defining the rocks in the waterfall. I think that I will leave the line of Autumnal trees in the background until after I have painted the foreground rocks and water.