Vaughn

I came across a couple of run-down motels in a run-down part of a town called Vaughn in New Mexico. For this picture, another in my Roadside America series, I have combined the sign from one with the buildings of the other. Like the previous picture "Topeka Storage", I have based the design on two unequal-sized blocks of colour, pink and purple in this case with some complementary green (with violet in it) and a burst of yellow in the setting sun reflection for variety. Once again I have opted for high saturation colours with the usual high contrast just confined to the light of the setting sun reflection in the window set against the mid and dark values of the rest of the painting. Oil on canvas 19 1/2" x 19 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting on previous posts on this blog.

Vaughn - stage 5

I put in the basic lettering on the sign first which I will paint over tomorrow to make it look old and peeling as well as making it blend in more with the rest of the sign. I also pretty much finished the buildings bar the sunburst reflection in the window. I keep having a nagging doubt about the sky being too dark so the first thing I will do tomorrow is put in the sunburst reflection  and judge the value of the sky against that. Still trying to keep it as two blocks of colour, pink and purple.

Vaughn - stage 4

I gave the sky a glaze of Quinacridone Red and then made a good start on the rest of the picture, still trying to keep it as two blocks of analogous colour, pink and purple although there are areas of complementary green too that have been mixed with some violet for colour harmony.

"Ghost Town"

Pleased to see that one of my paintings is a finalist in the Landscape section of the Art Renewal Centre's 2014-2015 Salon Competition. It is "Ghost Town", a cityscape that I feel is more at home in the Imaginative Realism section but hey, I ain't complainin'! Here is a link to the Landscape winners:

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2014-2015+Salon&page=Landscape

Oil on board 18" x 36" SOLD

Vaughn - stages 1 to 3

I came across a couple of closed-down motels in a run-down part of a town called Vaughn, New Mexico. For this painting I have combined the sign of one with the buildings of the other for this latest addition to my Roadside America series. Like the last one, "Topeka Storage", I am designing it around two blocks of colour, pink and purple although there will be variations in both sections. As you can see I am planning a burst of light from the setting sun reflected in a window near the left of the picture, everything else in the painting will have their values measured against this, the lightest part of the picture. Stage 1 was "drawn up" yesterday morning with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and Lukas Number 5 Medium to ensure it being dry for the afternoon session. In the afternoon I rubbed in washes of pink and purple thinned with Liquin and turpentine with a rag and left it to dry overnight. Today I have started to add colour and some tonal work to indicate which areas will be receiving some weak light from the setting sun.

The Drawing Circus

I went to Jake Spicer's Drawing Circus at the Bosco Theatre last night straight after returning from a trip to Leicester (hence no posts for a few days). As usual it was a great show but could have done with being nearer the models despite being on the second row. I got a couple of drawings of Frankie that were OK and one of Clementine with a lion head although it doesn't look much like her....pastel pencil on Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

Topeka Storage

I came across this building group in Topeka, Kansas for another in my Roadside America series ("storage" refers to the red building being a storage company). I decided on a very simple composition using two unevenly sized blocks of colour as the main design, red for the building and ground and yellow for the sky. In fact the painting is really based around orange; yellow/orange for the sky and red/orange for the buildings and ground. I used a yellow/green as a near-complementary to give some variety although there is a lot of violet in it as well and is a development of my high-contrast, high-saturation approach to what I am painting these days. Oil on canvas 19 1/2" x 19 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Topeka Storage - stage 5

There is a bit more variation in the reds in the painting itself that the camera can't pick up but basically have managed to stick to the original design idea of two blocks of colour, red and yellow. I have made a start on the foreground but will finish everything tomorrow.

Topeka Storage -stage 4

Finished the sky and rear building and made a good start on the nearer red brick building. Still trying to keep to the planned design of the larger red area and the smaller yellow (sky). Maybe finish this tomorrow?.....

Topeka Storage - stage 3

I want a very simple composition of a large area of reds and a smaller area of yellows, a decision being made to have analgous colours although I have steered the yellows to have some greens in them so there is a near-complementary there as well. I need to put some colours around the lower building that set off the red bricks so plenty to work out tomorrow.

Topeka Storage - stage 2

Wow, Lukas Number 5 Medium is something else. I put down a couple of washes this morning to form a tonal underpainting but instead of the usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet I used much brighter transparent washes of Cadmium Yellow Pale and Violet/Orange all mixed with Lukas Number 5 Medium and it was touch dry in an hour and fully dry to paint over in three hours. Brilliant, that enabled me to make a start on blocking in some details and a start on the sky in the afternoon.

Topeka Storage - stage 1

Liked the look of these buildings I came across in Topeka, Kansas. This will be another in my Roadside America series and am pleased that I am getting away from the more obvious Americana of diners and motels etc. I see this as dramatically lit from behind against an evening sky and propose to put down some strong washes of colour tomorrow morning when the initial "drawing" has dried. 

Life drawing sold

Well blow me down I went into the Sussex County Arts Club last night for the Tuesday Life Drawing Session and was amazed to discover that I had sold "Frankie", the one I put in almost as an afterthought, on the first weekend of the May Exhibition. Pastel pencil on Mi-Teintes paper.

Street Corner Symphony copy

I was recently commissioned to paint a larger size copy of a painting sold some years ago called "Street Corner Symphony". I drew it up by hand so that the composition is subtly different to the original but is in every other way as near to the original as I could get it, the buyer being particularly taken with the lighting which I made every effort to get right. Oil on MDF 36" x 36".