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.