Moonlight In The Seraglio

Although I thought that I had finished repainting "Moonlight In The Seraglio" yesterday I was looking at it this morning and I realised that I could improve it by darkening the interior. To this end I painted a Violet/Blue glaze over all of the mid-ground interior and over the shadows of the buildings on the background. This I think separates the interior from the outside and gives a bit more of an interesting tonal design to the picture by accentuating the shape of the area lit by moonlight in the  background.
This is a hard painting to photograph so you will have to wait until Illuxcon to see what it actually looks like!
I will be away from the studio now until Thursday although due to my father having another fall yesterday, things are more uncertain...

Moonlight In The Seraglio repainted

Something has bugged me about this painting for some time and I decided that if it was to be of a good enough standard to take to Illuxcon I needed to do something about it. I finally realised that it was the perspective in the foreground and the awkward space of carpet between the figure and the immediate foreground. The area that she occupied in space was wrong and it looked as though the divan was at some crazy angle to the floor. I didn't want to repaint the whole figure so I resolved to try and sort it out so that although it wouldn't be perfect at least it would make more sense, to which end I positioned her on a different divan that was at a different angle to the floor. I then added some other details such as an incense burner and a cushion and slightly repainted the figure.
I hope that this has resolved the situation!
Oil on linen 18" x 24".

Original painting

Moonlight In The Seraglio/Midnight Bay

Original painting

I have carried on with tweaking these two paintings to get them ready for Illuxcon with "Midnight Bay" now finished. I gave it two glazes of a green/blue (Winsor Green and Prussian Blue) to darken areas and strengthen the contrast.
Due to the extensive reworking of the foreground in "Moonlight In The Seraglio" I am still working on this one, hopefully finishing it tomorrow morning before I leave the studio for a few days, back on Saturday.

Reworked painting

 

 

 

Moonlight In The Seraglio

New Version

In order to get some paintings to a state that I am happy with to take to Illuxcon I am repainting or adjusting a number of paintings including "Midnight Mahal", "Midnight Bay"and "Moonlight In The Seraglio".
With "Moonlight In The Seraglio" there has been something bugging me about it for some time and have finally realised what it was, the perspective in the foreground. With that in mind I have made a start on correcting it by placing the figure on a different divan and at a different angle. I have also repainted the foreground pillar perspective so that the different components of the foreground will make more sense in terms of the space they occupy.

Original painting

 

Midnight Keep

This is the last of the five nocturnes all with the word "Midnight" in the title. I wanted to get away from the more monochromatic blues of the previous four and decided to go for a warmer and more varied palette based on a red/orange - green/blue complementary colour axis. I decided to do a painting mixing the influences of the Hudson River School in terms of scale and grandeur and Atkinson Grimshaw for it's moonlit lighting and colour.
The composition is loosely based on the Rule Of Thirds making sure that the landscape features were asymmetrical to offset the centrally placed figure although I wasn't sure whether to include a figure at the outset - the lovely Naomi Wood was the model as usual! This will be a painting that I intend to show at Illuxcon in October.
Oil on canvas 39" x 16". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Midnight Keep - stage 15

Not really a stage, it just shows the work I managed to get done this morning on the moonlit foreground sand and water before I packed up to leave the studio, back on Wednesday/Thursday to finish off the painting.

Spirit Of The Falls sold

"Spirit Of The Falls" has just sold through Asgard Arts. It was painted for exhibition at Illuxcon in 2014. Oil on canvas 39.5" x 16".

Midnight Keep - stage 14

I was hoping to finish it on this visit to the studio but I reckon even with the work I'll do on it tomorrow morning it will still have to wait until my next visit on Wednesday/Thursday this coming week. I don't want to hurry it and f*** it up as I am quite happy with how it's shaping up.
I have put in some underpainting on the figure and then worked on the sand and rocks in the foreground. All of the landscape is from my imagination which in one way makes it quick to paint but also entails painting out bits I'm not happy with which of course then adds to the time to get the picture finished. The moonlit area of the sand and rocks is still unresolved and hoping to sort most of that out tomorrow morning - I want to keep the warmth of colour but still make it look like moonlight.

Midnight Keep - stage 13

In the couple of hours I had this morning before leaving the studio (back Friday) I was able to rough in enough of the foreground water and sand to act as a good basis to work over when I return.
The tones are tricky here and have worked out that I need some sort of neutral mid-tone for the sand as the water reflections will have very dark and very light areas in the moonlight, although I want to keep the sand in warm colours nearest to the area directly under the moon.

Midnight Keep - stage 12

When I returned to the studio yesterday I made a start on the foreground water ripples in the sand but scrubbed them off later on as I didn't think they worked but I was glad that I had made a start as I now know how I want them to be. Today I decided to get on with finishing the cliffs, pillar and towers as this will help me with decisions on water/sand ripple shapes tomorrow morning.
Although this is a night painting I want the picture to be relatively flooded with moonlight so that it has a special atmosphere, influenced by Atkinson Grimshaw although you wouldn't necessarily know that from looking at the finished painting.

Midnight Keep - stage 11

In the few hours that I had this morning I decided to just paint a glaze over the cliffs at right before making a start on the central pillar of rock with the castle keep on top that gives the painting it's name. I have also decided to keep the figure so I have put a tone over it to give an idea what the final picture will look like. Back in the studio on Sunday...

Midnight Keep - stage 10

This actually shows the progress that I have made yesterday and today - I have pretty much finished the background and have made great progress on the nearer cliffs at left and right. I have stopped now for the paint to dry as I will probably finish them off tomorrow morning before I go away from the studio, back on Sunday. I intend to finish them with some dark glazes.

Art Renewal Center

My copy of the 12th International ARC Salon Competition Catalogue arrived this week in which I have two paintings included in the Landscape category, "Cool Constantinople" and "The Gilded Prison" on page 160. It's nice to be in the company of a wide range of respected artists and am looking forward to entering this year as I have a number of figurative works to try in the Figurative or Portrait categories too.
The competition is organised by the Art Renewal Center in the USA which has been established to promote Realism in the visual arts. This is the second year running that I have had work included.