Exile From Main Street sold

Asgard Arts has just sold "Exile From Main Street" over the Christmas break. This is one of a series of small paintings from a few years ago when the titles were based on famous sayings or song titles whereby I would usually change just one word, in this case substituting "from" for "on" from the title of The Rolling Stones album "Exile On Main Street". Needless to say the painting has nothing to do with the original title. The influence for this painting were the etchings of Edward Hopper.
Oil on board 12" x 12".

Art Renewal Center

That was a nice surprise for Christmas, my copy of the catalogue for the Art Renewal Society's 2014/2015 Salon arrived today. I managed to get my painting "Ghost Town" accepted for the Landscape category and can be found on page 161. My only niggle is that it is reproduced quite small which reduces it's feeling of space and depth. Still, nice to be in it!

Field Of Dreams

After finishing the private commission that was quite fiddly to paint, I decided to do a small and simple picture before I go away from the studio for Christmas. This was originally conceived as a pure landscape but it somehow developed into a figurative painting featuring the lovely Naomi Wood as the model. As usual the main design idea is centred around a colour combination, this time orange and violet, the title of course has nothing to do with the movie!
Oil on canvas 15 3/4" x 11 3/4". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Field Of Dreams - stage 4

Not sure if it's finished yet so I'm posting this as another stage. Something bothers me about the clouds so I will hopefully make any final changes to it before I go away for five days for Christmas.

Field Of Dreams - stages 1 to 3

After finishing the quite fiddly private commission and as it's not many days before I go away for Christmas I decided to paint something small and relatively simple. It was originally going to be a pure landscape painting but it somehow changed into a more figurative piece based on a photo session with the lovely Naomi Wood. Now that I have put in the colour underpainting using oranges and reds I have decided to go in this direction with colours that are a lot warmer than I originally envisaged. The sky will have a fair amount of sunset-lit clouds and I hope to keep the painting moody but with a strong colour design.
Stage one was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liqiun and turpentine.
Stage two has a Zinc White/Manganese Violet mix in the sky with some Permanent Orange/Manganese Violet on the land and figure.
Stage three is beginning to establish where the painting is going particularly in terms of colour.

Illuxcon 2016

Well it's good news, I have been selected to exhibit in the Main Show at next year's Illuxcon which from now on will be held at the new venue, The Goggleworks Center For The Arts in Reading PA, the show running from 19 -23 October. As usual I am in illustrious company as you can see from the list of artists attending.....

Babworth

This was a private commission for some friends that got married in this church on a beautiful Summer day with a clear blue sky and wanted this painting to be a memory of that special day. The church is in the village of Babworth near the town of Retford in Nottinghamshire in the UK and has connections to the Pilgrim Fathers.
I tried to resist my usual temptation of giving it a slightly sinister, slightly surreal look and tried to make it look as happy as I am able...which I hope I have achieved, they haven't seen it yet! I wanted to have some white Summer clouds in the sky to break up the blue but they insist it was a cloudless day; I set the clock to 2.00, the time that they were married.
Oil on canvas 27 1/2" x 27 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

New Article In A&I Magazine

I didn't know that this was out until yesterday, my new article for the January 2016 issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine, a Masterclass called "Fantastical Landscapes". It follows the progress of a picture I painted and sold at this year's Illuxcon called "Departure Of The Bash Kadin". I was very surprised that the magazine wanted to feature this painting as I was always under the impression that "Fantasy" art was of little interest to them....but I was obviously wrong! It is on pages 46 to 49. Incidentally anybody that saw this painting "in the flesh" will note how the vibrant colours I used have not translated to the printed page.....

Babworth - stage 11

Couldn't quite finish it today as the light in the studio was so dim this afternoon. I have finished the foreground  shadows etc and the background trees, all I need to do tomorrow is finish the tree at top right and then do any final adjustments to the church such as glazes etc. I have kept the trees in the background quite soft edge as I don't want to detract from the church being the main focus of the painting.

Babworth - stage 10

Painted in the lights by the steps and then made a start on the dappled sunlight in the foreground. I don't want the colours of the painting to be too cold so I might have to warm up the sky and church with a light yellow glaze but I will do that at the end. The dappled sunlight will be based around a cold light/warm shadows combination but I still want the whole foreground to be on the warm side keeping the church as the focus of the picture by making sure that the light areas in the foreground don't distract by being not as bright as the church.

Babworth - stage 9

Finished off the graveyard with just the gates and the lamps to put in tomorrow. Now that I have painted in the retaining wall I realise that I need to break up the straight line of it towards the left so I will have some dappled shadows breaking up the highlight on the top of the wall and also have some greenery and branches growing out of the mound of soil at the far left. Warm highlights and cooler shadows for the dappled sunlight in the foreground....

Babworth - stage 8

I have finished the church and am now working on the graveyard. The most important part of the picture is done (apart from maybe a slight yellow glaze to warm it up a bit) so everything else is now about giving the best setting for it that I can achieve. Trees and foreground next.....

Babworth - stage 7

Have spent all the time working on the church which is kind of fiddly work as I have to get it right in terms of drawing and colour. Once the church is finished I can then get on with finishing the trees before I finally paint the foreground.

Babworth - stage 6

I put down the first Manganese Blue glaze on the top of the sky at left and spent quite a lot of time correcting the drawing of the church. I also washed in some blue and green into the foreground.

Babworth - stage 5

Unfortunately the sky was not dry enough to paint on the blue glaze this morning so I got on with doing some work on the church and trees. At the moment I am working out what colours to use, particularly for the church. While having lunch today in town I noticed that the shadows were warmer than one would expect on the side of a building that was in strong sunlight so have resolved to apply this to the painting of the church.

Babworth - stage 4

I had to first repaint the sky as for some reason it had gone blotchy; this will hopefully be dry tomorrow for a blue glaze as I had before. I then strengthened the darks and worked on the trees and added some more colour to the dappled foreground shadows. Hopefully put in some warm yellows tomorrow.

Babworth - stage 3

Put the first Manganese Blue Hue glaze on the sky and then painted in some general colour to get an idea of how the painting is going to develop. All of this colour is just acting as an underpainting for the later layers. There will be some violets and blues in the shadows to link up with the sky and there will be some reds and violets in the tree at top right to link up with the foreground (and some greens in the shadows on the approach road to link with the church and trees).

Babworth - stage 2

Finally managed to get on with the painting today; I first put in some tone with a rag using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and turpentine and then painted in the base for the sky using a mix of Underpainting White, Manganese Blue Hue and Emerald Green with some Liquin and Lukas Number 5 Medium so that it should be dry for tomorrow.

Babworth - stage 1

This is a private commission for some friends that were married on a beautiful sunny day at this church in Nottinghamshire that has connections to The Pilgrim Fathers. It was a lovely Summer day with a clear blue sky, sunlight dappling the ground in front of the church and Summer flowers amongst the gravestones. I am setting the clock to 2 pm which is the time they got married and will try to recreate that special day in this painting. This first stage has been "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and turpentine.
I will have to leave it now until Tuesday when I return from a few days away.

Midgard sold

A picture that I painted for last year's Illuxcon has just sold to an American buyer who chose it from my website. 
The proportion of sales this year off the net compared to through galleries is over 80% to 20%. Are the days of dominance by galleries over, is it now the time that artists don't need them any more? I don't seem to although I would like to place my Roadside America series in one somehow, someday.......
"Midgard" is oil on canvas 39 1/2" x 16".

Adult Books

After the recent series of more "fantasy" oriented paintings for Illuxcon I have got back to another one in my Roadside America series. Certain things I have learnt from this recent work are being carried across to inform my Roadside America series. In this case I have used transparent colour only for the sky and more opaque colours for the land and buildings. By keeping the colours in the sky transparent you can get the sky to glow with colour and look more natural than trying to paint it in opaque colours.
The picture is actually of an adult book store on the outskirts of Detroit and I have tried to emphasise the dichotomy between a mundane and in this case tawdry urban scene with a romantic evening sky setting. I quite like the subtle surrealism of the central cloud mimicking the shape of the billboard as though it was disintegrating in the air. 
Oil on linen 20" x 16". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Bridge Of Sighs sold

My painting from 2011 "Bridge Of Sighs" has just sold through Asgard Arts. It was originally painted to a brief from a prints company in the UK which stated the colour range that it should be painted in, I think the location was up to me as long as it was Venice. I think the print sold poorly as I don't remember any royalty cheques of note! 18 1/2" x 18 1/2" oil on board.

Adult Books - stage 8

Managed to paint in the lettering on the signs which I will finish off tomorrow as indeed I hope to finish off the rest of the painting as I will be away for the weekend. This painting has taken too long to finish!

Adult Books - stage 7

Well as usual I don't seem to have got much done again today, not helped by overcast skies making the studio too dark to paint in by 3.00. Worked on the buildings and signs today ready to finish them off hopefully on Thursday as I have to go to a funeral tomorrow and will be away all day.

Adult Books - stage 6

Again, didn't get a lot done today due to dealing with other things but worked a bit more on the clouds and then painted in some of the background and worked on the central building a bit. The sky is not how I was going to do it but I like it as it is and will save the original sky idea for the next one in the series.

Adult Books - stage 5

For some reason I don't seem to be getting a lot done on this painting at the moment although it has been quite dark in the studio and as I like to work in daylight only I have been getting on writing my second article for Artists & Illustrators magazine instead.
I have put in the first yellow glaze on the sky and made a start on the clouds - quite like the way the nearer cloud mimics the shape of the billboard, I think I will keep that!

Adult Books - stage 4

Damn, the sky wasn't dry enough for me to put down the first yellow glaze today so I got on with some preliminary work on the buildings other than painting in a stronger orange on the sky nearer the horizon.
I really need to get the sky colour near to how I want it before doing anything else as this will set parameters for the saturation and values for the rest of the painting.

Adult Books - stage 3

Getting the sky ready for the yellow glazes - I often end up with the clouds in skies being too dark in relation to the rest of the picture (photographs always give the dark values in the sky and land a similar value in dusk pictures) and am making a determined effort to keep the darkest value in the clouds lighter than the middle to dark values in the rest of the picture. When on location at dusk if you squint your eyes you will notice that the sky is lighter than you think in relation to the land.
I then made a start on painting in some darker values in the buildings etc - I want the painting to be rich in colour with a glowing sky against a subtler rich but darker foreground, the lightest part of the picture being the illuminated sign saying "Adult Books".

Adult Books - stage 2

Today I put down a tonal colour underpainting mixing Lukas Number 5 Medium into the paint so that it would be dry enough in the afternoon to paint a second layer over the foreground. The sky is going to have a big influence from a recently discovered colour study by Frederick Church called "Sky At Sunset, Jamaica" which will be achieved by layers of glazes and scumbles that I hope will look almost luminous against the foreground buildings.

Adult Books - stage 1

After a good few weeks away from painting due to Illuxcon and getting my tax books done I am finally able to get back. The two main streams of my work tend to inform each other and what I have been doing for Illuxcon wherein I have been concentrating on colour and atmosphere is now being applied to my Roadside America series. This picture is of an adult bookstore on the outskirts of Detroit but I intend the painting to be all about the sky; a glowing evening sky will sit behind a subdued foreground of buildings and road barely lit but not too dark and silhouetted against the moody sky. I have shot this first stage in artificial light as the nights are drawing in and is too dark in the studio to shoot by daylight. I have "drawn" it up with my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin using a small bristle brush.

Nomination for Artist Of The Year 2015

I have been nominated for "Artist Of The Year 2015" in Artists & Illustrators magazine, a shortlist of 50 paintings. My painting "Drive Thru" can be voted for on the magazine's website and will be exhibited at The Mall Gallery in London from 22-27 February 2016. 
Vote for me!

Here is the link to the magazine website:
http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/shortlist2015

Infected By Art

I was pleased to be given my copy of Volume Three of Infected By Art at Illuxcon last week. I have one painting, "Approaching The Citadel" in it, the painting itself is owned by Pat and Jeannie Wilshire.

Sailing Into Byzantium sold

After eliciting lots of favourable comments at Illuxcon I packed this painting up and gave it to Pak Mail at the end of the show to FedEx it back to the UK for me as it remained unsold. I believe it is going off today. Unbelievably a buyer in California has just popped up through Asgard Arts and has bought it! I am now waiting for it to come back and praying that UK customs don't delay it as I have to unpack it and then pack it into it's own box to ship straight back to the USA! The buyer needless to say was not at Illuxcon.
Oh I wish that somebody at Illuxcon had bought it........

Off to Illuxcon 2015!

OK there will be no more posts on this blog until I return from Illuxcon 2015 in Allentown PA. I hope to be back on the 27th October and I also hope that I have good things to report!
I have sent nine paintings ahead and I am taking one or possibly two more small ones in my luggage.
I hope to be posting updates and photos of the event on Facebook over the coming days.

Fireflies

A small painting that I am bringing to Illuxcon as an extra in my luggage, the rest of the pictures having been sent ahead. This painting has proved very hard to photograph; the picture when you see it in the flesh has a richer green/blue colour to it compared to what you see here. It is influenced by Maxfield Parrish and Edmund Dulac and is just a simple scene of a Classical temple by a lake (based on something I saw near Rome) based on a blue/green - red/orange complementary colour combination,  the fireflies providing the red/ orange in the painting. Oil on linen 15 3/4" x 11 3/4". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Fireflies - stage 5

Damn, this painting is hard to photograph. Anyway, I have made a start on the fireflies first using an orange although for some reason they are showing up very dark when photographed. This needs to be finished tomorrow or Saturday so that it can dry in time for being packed in the suitcase (and to be scanned) to go off to Illuxcon.

Fireflies - stage 4

Very difficult to photograph this painting, the main colour is a rich green/blue which isn't really shown in this photo. It also has less contrast in the original painting.
I have pretty much finished the landscape and hope to start painting in the fireflies which will have a yellow/orange colour to them to contrast with their complementary blue/green in the background.

Fireflies - stages 2 & 3

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday as there is so much to do preparing for Illuxcon.
In stage 2 I put down some rough colour that unfortunately didn't dry quick enough for me to get anything else done that day. Today I painted a Phthalocyanine Blue glaze over the sky before painting in the trees and temple. In the afternoon I was able to put down the basic water reflections by dragging a house paint brush over the blocked in paint. It proved very difficult to photograph the painting to get the correct colour and contrast and indeed is still wide of the mark.

Two more articles for Artists & Illustrators magazine

Departure Of The Bash Kadin

I have just been commissioned to write two more articles for Artists & Illustrators magazine, both of which will be a step-by-step breakdown of the different stages of painting "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" and "Idalou". 

Idalou

Fireflies - stage 1

It's all hands to the pumps at the moment as I get things ready for Illuxcon. The boxed-up paintings went off by FedEx on Friday so that's the major thing dealt with.
"Fireflies" is a small painting that I intend to take over in my luggage as an extra painting to exhibit. It will be a simple composition of a ruined Classical temple by a lake on a moonlit night with fireflies dotted around the foreground, a magical nocturne that will be all about colour and atmosphere. 
This stage was "drawn" in with a thin bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and Lukas Number 5 Medium for a short drying time. I then washed in some tone with a rag and brushes later in the afternoon using the same paint mixture thinned with turpentine and Liquin.

Angel's Diner sold

My painting of a diner in Florida has just sold through Asgard Arts. All I need to do now is to get it back from a gallery in Darlington so I can send it to the buyer. Oil on board 12" x  12".