Tram Stop

Another of my "God's Eye View" paintings of a city street, could be anywhere and almost any time within the last fifty years. I have kept the lighting deliberately strange and dreamlike, is it night is it day?  It is based on a red/green complementary colour combination but kept warm, the green is nearer to a grey with all the colour coming from the reds/oranges and yellows. Oil on canvas 15 3/4" x 15 3/4". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting on earlier posts on this blog.

Tram Stop - stage 3

Started to put some colour on today, trying to keep it within a red/green colour combination.

Tram Stop - stage 2

I decided to put on another tonal layer of transparent colour instead of going to colour as I want the opaque lighter areas to be sitting on a darker colour than I had on stage 1. 

Tram Stop - stage 1

"Tram Stop" is a working title for this picture. I just fancy trying something tonal and simple before I get on with some more complicated paintings coming up. This will be kept soft and relatively simple with a limited pallette and just a few hits of flared lights on cars, tram, shop and street lighting in warm yellows, oranges and red. This is the wash-in using a rag with Burnt Sienna, Dioxazine Purple, and Alizarin Crimson thinned with Liquin and turpentine. I will now be away until Sunday so there will be no more work on this until Monday.

Assignation

A lone figure stands near a tree away from the footpath in a city park, maybe Central Park. Is he waiting for someone or something? Is it connected to the dazzling light in the night sky? Maybe he has just seen the light and is transfixed by it's brilliance? Another of my Urban paintings although there is an element of Science Fiction to it as well....maybe. Another possible for Illuxcon. Oil on canvas 31 1/2" x 11 3/4". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts on this blog.

Assignation - stage 4

Adjusted the values so that the light in the sky is the brightest part of the picture, keeping the colours in the park and street based around warm oranges and yellows to harmonise with the complementary blue/green in the sky.

Assignation - stage 3

Gradually working out where I am going with this as it is mostly invented with very little photo reference as such. Probably start putting some greens over the reds tomorrow....

Assignation - stage 2

Put in some tonal colours ready for the opaque colour to start going on tomorrow. The delicate tonal paintings of George Inness are an influence on this; just noticed that I need to get my tonal masses sorted out first.....

Assignation - stage 1

A night scene in a city park, probably Central Park; a lone figure stands near a tree away from the footpath presumably waiting for someone. A bright light fills the sky in the upper centre of the picture, dazzling and a very different colour to the park lights and the indications of lights in buildings in the distance. Is he waiting to meet someone or something? Is this an everyday (or night) scene of a meeting or is something else going on, connected with the dazzling light? This is my usual wash-in with a rag using a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple diluted with Liquin and turpentine.

Mermaid's Storm

After the rigid horizontals and verticals of my recent cityscape paintings I chose to paint something more Romantic and nature-based. It is a JW Waterhouse-influenced picture of a well-built mermaid (as a femme fatale) that has spotted a distant sailing ship on the horizon and has called up a storm to sink it. So it's a Romantic but not necessarily nice picture of a mermaid, they were after all depicted as luring sailors to their death either by calling up a storm or playing a lyre that casts a spell over the approaching sailors! I wanted a richly coloured picture to which end I have again used more transparent paints and glazes over my usual tonal monochrome underpainting. This will be a contender to take to Illuxcon in September. Oil on canvas 11 3/4"x 31 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress though this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Mermaid's Storm - stage 5

Finished off the sky and made a start on the sea, realising that I needed to show the seabed that she is lying on.

Mermaid's Storm - stage 4

I needed to change some of the clouds so I could only partially glaze them and consequently didn't get a lot done today!

Mermaid's Storm - stage 3

I managed to get in all the sky and background today so that it is ready for glazing although I didn't use much Liquin so it may take a couple of days to dry in which case I will work on the foreground tomorrow.

Mermaid's Storm - stage 2

Have painted mainly transparent colour washes over the monochrome underpainting today.

Mermaid's Storm - stage 1

As a nice change from the rigid uprights and horizontals of the last two cityscape paintings I have decided to paint another Mermaid picture that concentrates on sky and sea which gives me the chance to paint more natural forms that are conducive to a freer painting style. The lighting is late afternoon with approaching storm clouds, the whole picture will be rich in colour by the use of transparent layers of colour over this stage that was put in with a rag using my usual mixture of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and turpentine. The composition changed radically from my initial sketch that had the sky area only occupying the top quarter of the painting but I was unhappy with the composition and gave much more emphasis to the sky in the final design. The title might just be a working title, we will see as I go along if I think of something better.

Dream Street

Another upright panorama format painting this time as part of my strand of work I loosely call "Figurative" on my website. A Hopper-ish view looking down on a solitary figure walking up a deserted street, early morning sunlight streaming in from the left. I am trying (hence the title) to get a dreamlike quality to the picture by keeping finicky detail to a minimum so that it doesn't have the appearance of a real street and together with the lighting I hope that this atmosphere gets across. I may take this to Illuxcon as I feel that there should be work there that is Imaginative Realism in it's wider context and I think that this painting could fit into that category. Oil on canvas 11 3/4" x 11 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts in this blog.

Dream Street - stage 5

More work all over the painting today, maybe finish it tomorrow?

Dream Street - stage 4

Worked all over the picture today including making a start on the sunlight coming in from the left, the shadow areas and some detail on the buildings. I still need to remember to keep it fairly simple as regards to detail, if it gets too busy it won't have the atmosphere that I am after.

Dream Street - stage 3

I didn't go to London today so I got on with putting down some transparent colour; I am basing it around a red/green complementary-ish colour axis at the moment although the sunlight coming in from the left will be a lot warmer and brighter than it appears at the moment. I presume that I will have to introduce some violet/purples into some of the shadow areas.

Dream Street - stage 2

Managed to finish off the tonal block-in this morning. I think that I need to keep the painting simple and not too fussy with detail to get across the mood that I am looking for, I suppose a bit like the way Edward Hopper painted his street scenes. Won't get anything done on this tomorrow as I will be in London for the day.