Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub sold

Apologies for a recent lack of posts on this blog, I have been on a tour of India from Kolkata to Amritsar...hopefully some paintings inspired by this will come along soon. While I was away in India "Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub" was sold by Asgard Arts which was a nice bit of news while I was away. It was painted as a companion piece to "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" but remained unsold after being exhibited at Illuxcon last year. Oil on canvas 18 3/4" x 18 3/4".

Article for Artists & Illustrators magazine on Facebook

The Facebook page for Artists & Illustrators magazine has just posted an article I wrote a while ago about small paintings and includes a short painting demonstration.
Here is the link:
http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/news/unknown/1504/how-to-create-sellable-art-in-two-days-

Looking For Business sold

One of my Brighton seafront paintings has just sold through Asgard Arts. "Looking For Business" was painted a few years ago when I was painting a series of pictures in the city where I live, usually locations where there was some bright colour, in this case a children's ride very near the Palace Pier.
12" x 12" oil on board.

Cold Constantinople

As I enjoyed painting the last Winter snow scene I thought that I would paint another as the next painting is planned to be a more involved figurative piece in reds and golds and I am going for a two week holiday in India at the end of this week so I would prefer to get on with that on my return.
I decided to paint an Orientalist picture but instead of a hot dusty scene I chose a freezing cold view of Constantinople in the Winter, a city that does indeed get snow and even when I was there in the Spring some years ago it was surprisingly cold. This is an imaginary view of the Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church turned into a mosque which I have set on a freezingly cold day with just a wan shaft of sunlight illuminating the dome, everything else is seen in a cold half-light. The picture is based on a blue-green/red-orange complementary colour axis with all the near-neutral tones being mixes of those colours with white. Another potential painting to take to Illuxcon in October....
Oil on linen 16" x 22". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Cold Constantinople - stage 8

Hardly a stage really as I have only managed an hour's work before having to go away for the weekend, back on Monday. I just put some work into the chimneys with a slight variation in colour by introducing a bit of orange although it will be taken back a bit later on. Anyway, no more progress on this painting until Tuesday!

Cold Constantinople - stage 7

Again only able to get a morning's work in but put the first light scumble over the mosque as I want that area to be lighter and more distant and then worked more on the fore and mid ground buildings.

Cold Constantinople stage 6

Only really got a morning's work on it today but managed to work on the sky (including warming up the light area still further with some lemon Yellow), distant and mid ground buildings as well as toning down the foreground snow. It really is meant to look cold, freezing cold.

Three paintings sold

Cannaregio Fog

Asgard Arts have just sold three paintings to a buyer in Italy, they are "Dorsoduro Reflections", "I Pescatori" and "Cannaregio Fog". The buyer is obviously a lover of Venice as all three paintings are located there. Two of the paintings are relatively old as they are painted on board with only "Cannaregio Fog" being on canvas although even the canvas one is relatively old as I only paint on linen these days. "Cannaregio Fog" is 15 3/4" x 15 3/4", the other two are 12" x 12'.

Dorsoduro Reflections

I Pescatori

 

Cold Constantinople - stage 5

Worked on the mosque and background today, making sure to have the lightest area of the picture on the intersection of the Rule of Thirds in the left corner, all other tones will use this as a guide to the lighting.

Cold Constantinople - stage 4

After a few days away from the studio I painted in more of the sky and some more tonal underpainting on the buildings. It was looking too cold (and a bit boring) so I put in some warm white with a touch of lemon yellow into the light area in the sky which will also be reflected in some of the snow particularly on the dome of the mosque. I am putting in some detail into the mosque as it is the focus of the picture but it will eventually be knocked back by freezing misty air, likewise the foreground buildings too.