The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub

A father and his daughter have pitched their tent overnight by the mosque of Wadi Mektoub, a famous shrine deep in the desert. Their boat is moored in the tranquil river with their rowing boat pulled up on the riverbank, a fire burns in front of the tent for the daughter to cook some food as well as to ward off the chill of a desert night. Perhaps they are on a pilgrimage to the shrine, perhaps they are just passing through.
Due to the good response to "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" and due to it selling so early I felt that it would make sense to paint a similar one as I felt that "Bash Kadin" could have sold to another collector at the upcoming Illuxcon where this painting is heading.
These Orientalist paintings are very much fantasies in that I paint them as a Middle Eastern scene would be depicted in a Hollywood movie like Indiana Jones for example i.e. impossible juxtapositions of Middle Eastern elements that somehow relate to Western peoples' fantasy of Arabian Nights-style scenes and situations. I also give them cod-Orientalist titles as a nod to the original inspiration of Victorian era paintings by Gérome etc etc. A big influence on this picture is the work of Albert Goodwin. Wadi Mektoub does not exist; a wadi (in the Maghreb for instance) is a river and Mektoub is Arabic for happy happenstance like the Turkish word, Kismet.
Oil on canvas 19 3/4" x 19 3/4". A step-by-step progress through this painting can be found in previous posts on this blog.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 7

Somehow didn't get a lot done today; I have pretty much finished the foreground and put in the boat but didn't quite have enough time to paint in the water so instead of rushing it and maybe not doing a good job of it I decided to finish it tomorrow.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 6

Getting everything ready for the final push tomorrow when I finish off the foreground and water reflections. Already have the next painting planned, it's a development of the moonlit desert on the left of this one......no more mosques though.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 5

Another glaze of Phthalocyanine Blue on the sky (this photo does not get across the intensity of this blue/green sky), finished off the mosque and sand dunes and then put in the buildings of the village. 

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 4

Painted another glaze of Phthalocyanine Blue on the sky and spent the rest of the day working on the mosque, which still isn't quite finished. The blue in the sky is a more intense green/blue than it appears in this photograph - it is a grey afternoon here and the light isn't that bright in the studio for photography.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 3

Today I painted the first glaze of Phthalocyanine Blue on the sky, made a start on the mosque details and put in the underpainting for the sand and rocks at the base of the mosque. I also decided to have some buildings on the other side of the river below the mosque as they would logically be there and it gives further interest to that part of the painting.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub stages 1 and 2

Seeing as I had such a good response to "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" and due to it selling so early I felt that it would make sense to paint a similar one as I sensed this one could have sold at Illuxcon to another collector. I will be painting this one in very similar colours to the last one, the main difference being the orange area of the boat's sail is replaced by firelight shining through the back of the tent in the right corner. 
These Orientalist paintings are very much fantasies in that I paint them as though they were in an Indiana Jones movie; i.e. impossible juxtapositions of Middle Eastern elements that somehow relate to Western people's fantasy of Arabian Nights-style scenes and situations. I also give them cod Orientalist titles as a nod to the original inspiration of Victorian era paintings by Gérome etc etc. Wadi Mektoub does not exist: a wadi is (in the Maghreb for instance) a river and Mektoub is Arabic for happy happenstance like the Turkish word, Kismet.
Stage 1 was painted in the morning with a thin bristle brush using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Lukas Number 5 Medium so that it was dry for the afternoon session when I gave it a tonal wash of the same colours mixed with turpentine. 
Stage 2 was today's session when I put down the first layer of colour on the sky and other areas of the painting.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin sold

I am pleased to announce that "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" has sold before the paint had dried just like two other recent paintings heading for Illuxcon. The same nice lady in the USA who bought "Nénuphar"has bought this one and I am happy that both can be exhibited at Illuxcon in October before she takes them away at the end of the show.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin

On a bright moonlit night deep in the desert a a boat quietly leaves the quay of a riverside village. In the background looms the Sultan's Palace ethereally lit by the overhead moon from where the figure at the front of the boat has come, she is the Bash Kadin, the First Wife of the Sultan. Why is she leaving at such a mysterious time of the night? Perhaps she is escaping the clutches of an evil monster, maybe she is on a secret errand for the Sultan......
This is another painting heading for Illuxcon, this time a moonlit Orientalist picture based on a blue/green - red/orange complementary colour scheme. I wanted the palace (and mosque) to be mysteriously lit by moonlight and have composed it with The Rule Of Thirds very much in mind although it is offset by a centrally-placed light source and reflection. 19 3/4" x 19 3/4" oil on canvas. There is a step-by-step progress though this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin - stage 7

Pretty much finished off the village so I got on with blocking in the boat including making it bigger compared to the sail and then I painted in the water on either side of the reflection. I need to paint the moonlight reflection and the boat at the same time so I left this for the final day's work.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin - stage 6

Didn't get much done today as I had to go to the Eye Hospital for a check up wherein they put in an eyedrop that makes the pupils dilate and the eyesight goes a bit fuzzy so not ideal for painting! I did manage to get one more glaze layer on the sky and then worked on the trees and village. Towards the end of the afternoon I worked out that if I put in some blue/green over the darks you get a nice colour which will make the whole painting based around a classic red/orange - green/blue colour complementary with most of it being variations of blue/green.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin - stage 5

Getting the sky near to the depth of blue that I want so that the palace looks slightly ethereal in the moonlight especially now that the light on the sand dunes has been put in. I have made a start on sorting out the village and palms by the shore of the river which I need to be the darkest area of the painting so that the tonal design works.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin - stages 3 and 4

I didn't get a chance to post anything yesterday so here are two stages of the painting. In stage 3 I made a start on the palace and the sand (as well as a glaze layer of Phthalocyanine Blue on the sky) which I repeated today to a point where the palace is pretty much finished. I also made the moonlight on the sand more convincing which I will finish off tomorrow. Another glaze layer of Phthalocyanine Blue on the sky tomorrow should also make more sense of the values used on the palace. 

Departure Of The Bash Kadin - stage 2

Well I decided to stick to moonlight in the end as I think that it will look more atmospheric and evocative. I can't paint in the reflections until I can see what they are reflecting i.e. I have to finish the upper part of the picture first. The painting will be centred on a blue/green - red/orange complementary colour axis although I will need some yellow for the desert sand. The darkest part of the painting will be the strip of land with the buildings and palm trees which neatly lies on a line a third of the way up the picture. In fact The Rule Of Thirds has been used a lot in this painting, the boat lies in the corner at a third of the way along and up; this is to offset the centrally-placed moonlight reflection.

Departure Of The Bash Kadin - stage 1

The Bash Kadin is the First Wife of the Sultan; this picture shows her leaving a small quay near the Sultan's Palace on a boat heading who knows where. I still have a choice of the time of day that I want to set it in, originally I saw it as moonlit but it could be sunlit too - either way there will be a considerable amount of flare coming off the reflection in the water. I first "drew" it up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and Lukas Number 5 Medium in the morning session so that it would be dry enough in the afternoon to apply a wash of the same paint mix thinned with turpentine for a basic tonal underpainting. This is another painting hopefully heading for Illuxcon in October.

Nénuphar sold

A nice lady in the USA has just bought "Nénuphar" even before the paint had dried! She had seen it on the IX Facebook page when I posted it yesterday and immediately contacted me about buying it. This is the second recent painting destined for Illuxcon that has sold straight after completion; I will be taking them to Allentown to exhibit at Illuxcon before the buyers take them away at the end of the show.

Nénuphar

Nénuphar is French for Water Lily so is ostensibly connected to the lilies in the pool at the bottom of the picture but as I love the word so much it could be the name of the woman emerging out of the pool or even the name of the Land itself. Another picture that is hopefully heading for Illuxcon in October this one is loosely based on an orange/red - green/blue complementary colour axis but in fact just has about every colour in the rainbow in it. The basic idea was to have a warm top third contrasting with a cool bottom two thirds centred around cool greens. The main influences on this landscape typical of what I used to paint as an illustrator are Maxfield Parrish and the Hudson River painters, particularly Albert Bierstadt and is just about the first time I have painted an imaginary mountain scape for fifteen years. Oil on canvas 15 3/4" x 31 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting on previous posts on this blog.

Nénuphar - stage 4

Have got most of the picture done now, it just leaves the bottom of the painting to sort out and then I need to paint some glazes over various areas to intensify the colours a bit as the white that I have used in the mixes has made the colours slightly chalky.

Nénuphar - stage 3

Spent the whole day refining and defining the middle ground of the painting as I need to do this before I paint in the buildings in the sunlight in front of the mountain. The influences on this picture are Maxfield Parrish and the Hudson River School of painters; I must also add that I am not basing this picture on a particular colour combination (it could be vaguely described as based on a blue/green - yellow/orange complementary I suppose) as I am having pretty much every colour in the rainbow in this one.

Nénuphar - stage 2

Managed to get quite a lot done today; painted in the sky and mountain (will paint the moon in tomorrow) and then made a good start on the slopes of the hillside behind the city. I also adjusted the shape of the foreground tree at left and put in some more cool greens in the bottom half of the picture.  The ruined temple will be much more subtly lit than it appears at the moment.

Nénuphar - stage 1

Nénuphar is French for water lily which will be found in the pool at the bottom of the painting but I just love the name anyway so in my imagination it is the name of the woman who is emerging out of the pool (you can't see her yet)...or maybe it is the name of the Land that I am painting....
I first "drew" it up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna thinned with Liquin and Lukas Number 5 Medium and then used a rag to wash in some tone using the same colour mix thinned with turpentine in the morning session. By mid-afternoon it was dry enough to very roughly paint in some underlying colours. 
This is another painting that will hopefully be heading to Illuxcon later in the year.

Sanctuary Of The Sun

As the sun sets a lone figure has walked through the ruins of an ancient temple complex and performs an ancient rite to the sun disc in the Temple of Apollo at the top of the hill. All is quiet and still in the warm, misty air, just occasionally one can hear the muffled words of an incantation previously thought lost to the world drifting towards us.
Another painting hopefully heading for Illuxcon in October, "Sanctuary Of The Sun" was influenced by the colours of Sydney Long's "Spirit Of The Plains" but has something of Caspar David Friedrich in there too, maybe it's the arch on the hilltop temple. As the composition rests on the centrally placed arch and sun I have tried to break up the symmetry by offsetting other elements against it as well as having movement within the composition whereby the eye is led from the temple ruin at left onto the broken column that then leads around to the way up to the hilltop and the figure below the arch and sun. I chose an analogous palette based around red that went from oranges and yellows to pinks and violets (with a guest colour of yellow green)....and the subtle light blue in the sky. Oil on canvas 23 1/2" x 19 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress though this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Sanctuary Of The Sun - stage 6

I have continued to work over the whole picture as it is quite difficult to modulate the values and colours for it to work spatially. I have knocked back the arch and cypresses so that the foreground can come forwards more and am putting some blues into the foreground so that it differentiates itself from the rest of the picture. There will be no real dark values in this painting as everything is contre-jour and misty - it also looks better in the studio than the photograph so please bear with me until it is finished and can get a decent shot of it!

Sanctuary Of The Sun - stage 5

Have worked all over the picture again, adjusting values and colour so that most of the painting will be in middle to high values but trying to keep a strong saturation to the colours.