Elen

Finally finished the follow-up picture to "Faeral" with the lovely Naomi Wood modelling her horned head dress again. This time it is of Elen, Goddess Of The Ways who rules over amongst other things, paths in forests. Although the painting is full of detail the composition is very simple being based on two unevenly sized blocks of the complementary colours yellow and violet.
I was originally going to have her reaching across a snow-covered path but changed my mind halfway through and changed it to falling water. I had to resist the temptation many times to keep the two blocks of colour separate by not introducing yellow and orange highlights into the foreground branches etc as this would compromise my original intention of the simple composition. Another painting that is hard to photograph, the original isn't quite so so contrasty and saturated as it appears here...
This will probably be a painting heading for this year's IlluxCon in Reading PA.
Oil on linen 20" x 30".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Elen - stage 11

Couldn't quite finish it this session so there just remains to tweak the figure, put in the flowers and horns on the head dress and get the branches that her left hand is holding finished off.

International Artist magazine

I have a four page article in the current, February/March issue of International Artist magazine. Under the heading of "Master Painters Of The World" the article called "Heightened Reality" focus's mainly on my Roadside America paintings apart from "Cold Constantinople" on the second page. Unfortunately since WH Smith have stopped selling the magazine in the UK I am unsure of how to get hold of a copy over here!

 

Elen - stage 10

Pretty much finished the foreground branches barring a few possible tweaks tomorrow and after sorting out the rocks nearest the figure I began on Elen herself. I am going with warm shadows and cool highlights for the figure and need to work out the correct values for the flesh colour in relation to the landscape around her. I want her to be very much part of the foreground so there will be very little in the way of any background colour on the figure apart from maybe some sunlight on the top of her left thigh.

Pavilion Bus Shelter sold

Asgard Arts have just sold one of my Brighton paintings "Pavilion Bus Shelter" to a lady in Cheshire. I had been struck by the contrast between the two very different architectural styles of the Indian pavilion and the Art Deco bus shelter for a while and resolved one evening to go down to The Steine and photograph it for reference. When I got there there was a small gang of louts in the shelter who started shouting and threatening me when I started to photograph it from across the road. I ignored them and pretended I was a foreign tourist who obviously didn't understand what they were saying and carried on, after a couple of minutes it seemed to work and they ignored me so it must have worked!
Oil on board 12" x 12".

Elen - stage 9

Still working on the foreground landscape detail and apart from a few things to finish on the rocks nearest to the figure I am ready to paint in the foreground branches before going on to the figure hopefully next time I am in the studio - Friday. Still very hard to photograph this picture, it always looks too contrasty.

Elen - stage 8

This session I continued to work on the foreground as well as sorting out the top right of the picture. The painting is trying to to suggest the complexity of Nature that is her domain so there will be many rocks and branches etc but the composition is very simple being based on two unevenly sized blocks of the complementary colours, yellow and violet.

Elen - stage 7

Spent most of this session generally working over the foreground and figure.

Helikon Gallery

I am pleased to report that my two paintings, "Cold Constantinople" and "Fireflies" that were  exhibited at the Abend Gallery show "Inner Visions" are included in an extended run that has transferred to the Helikon Gallery also in Denver Colorado. The show runs from February 1 to March 11 2017 and has been curated again by Patrick and Jeannie Wilshire, Directors of IX Arts.