Agharta

Agharta is a Buddhist concept of the Subterranean World and is believed to be secretly located somewhere in Tibet, the gateway being guarded by Lamas. There are also connections to the Hollow Earth theory of advanced Atlanteans living under the Earth's crust in Antarctica with Nazi connections to this theory through some expeditions sent by them to Tibet and Antarctica and a mysterious voyage by a U Boat to Antarctica at the very end of the Second World War.
This is a companion picture to some recent ones like "City Of The Sky People" and "Butte States" in that it has a fantasy city in it with an emphasis on the sky. This picture was originally going to be of Antarctica but when I came across the Tibetan connections I decided it would be more visually interesting to set it there.
It was originally conceived as being painted in desaturated colours in quite a limited palette but once I had painted in the underpainting I changed my mind and went for a warm top half and a freezing cold bottom half with the cave glow breaking up the otherwise fairly monochromatic bottom part of the picture. Compositionally I have placed the cave with Tibetan buildings above and the foreground tower building at a third in from the sides forming a central diamond with the background mountain. The mountain is loosely based on Mount Kailash (Meru), the most sacred mountain in Tibet and important to Buddhists.
I hope to be bringing this to show at IX in October. Oil on linen 30" x 20".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Agharta is also the title of a favourite Miles Davis album...

Agharta - stage 15

I gave a bit more definition to the Tibetan-style buildings above the cave mouth and made a start on the rock face at left. Maybe finish this tomorrow if I can get long enough to work on it and will post the finish from a scan the next day as my digital camera is not capable of getting across the tonal variations or the true colour...

Agharta - stage 14

I have pretty much finished the right side of the foreground and have made a start on the rock face on the left side. Leaving the cave entrance till last. These digital camera photos are making the painting look more contrasty than it is so I will post the finished painting from a scan.

Agharta - stage 13

Today I painted in the foreground building along with the rocks it sits on and the foreground snowy slope at right. I am trying to keep the snow within a narrow fairly dark tonal range as I don't want it to interfere with the composition. Although a complex looking image the composition is based around two areas of colour, the snowy foreground and landscape in cold subdued blues and the warm sunlit background in warm blues and pink/oranges.

Agharta - stage 12

Again didn't get a lot done today but managed to pretty much finish the Tibetan-style buildings above the cave and made a start on the foreground building at right centre. As can now be seen it is going to be a landscape covered in snow and very cold and remote.

Agharta - stage 11

Didn't get a lot of time to work on this today (as usual these days) but managed to get most of the Tibetan-style buildings in and worked a bit on the rocks and snow around them ready for tomorrow when I intend to paint some freezing mist over the buildings and nearby landscape ridges.

Agharta - stage 10

Working on the mid-ground snowy ridges and Tibetan-style buildings over the cave entrance. Using mixes of Indanthrene Blue (Winsor & Newton), Kings Blue Light, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange and Ultramarine Violet for the snow and rocks.

Agharta - stage 9

Now starting to work on the snowy slopes in the mid-ground having decided to keep the colour cast to the area below the mountain in desaturated blues to contrast with the warm colours of the background mountain.

Agharta - stage 8

Working on the mid-ground snowy ridges today, slowly working from the background to the foreground which is my usual method of working. I decided to go with my original colour design of all the foreground landscape in desaturated blues with the warmer sky and mountain occupying the top third/half of the picture.

Agharta - stage 7

I am continuing with working on the mid-ground foothills and have washed in a tonal colour over the foreground landscape. Although the landscape below the mountain is planned as being in desaturated blues I quite like the warm violet cast that it currently has. I will decide which way to go over my breakfast coffee tomorrow morning...

Agharta - stage 6

I knocked back the clouds a bit by putting more pink into them...in fact I still may make them even pinker/darker, I'll have another look at them over my breakfast coffee tomorrow. The mountain which is only loosely based on Mount Kailash is pretty much finished, I'll just paint a few misty clouds around it's base and then I hope to start on the mid-ground mountains and foothills. I want to try and keep all the foreground in fairly desaturated colour so that the mountain glows in the late afternoon light to which end I want to keep the violets in the snow to be kept well back and desaturated.

Agharta - stage 5

I decided to keep the orange/pink late afternoon light that came through on the colour underpainting and go with that as it looked more interesting than how I was originally seeing it in my head. Something about the clouds still bugs me so hopefully I will spot it tomorrow morning over my breakfast coffee and sort them out! Then it's time to finish off the central mountain.

Agharta - stage 4

Worked on the sky and mountain today, the sky will do as it is for the moment as I can always adjust it later on when I start working on the landscape. I hadn't originally planned to have much warm colour in the picture as this but I quite like the Sienna/Orange around in the sky and mountain and will probably go along with this for the moment. It is meant to be a very cold picture and was going to keep the colours fairly monochromatic but I quite like how the mountain glows so we'll see how this painting pans out as I go along.

Agharta - stage 3

The first pass of rough colour over the painting. The lighting design of the picture can now begin to be seen, the mountain (Kailash) picking up the last light of the afternoon sun and everything else in shadow which will enable the lights to be seen in the buildings and cave entrance. 
This painting was originally planned to be an Antarctic landscape, freezing cold with snow and ice but I decided a Tibetan one would be more interesting. What is not apparent at this stage is how cold this painting is meant to look with snow everywhere and plumes of steam coming from the buildings as the warm air meets the cold.
A relatively limited palette is envisaged.

Agharta - stage 2

With a rag and later a half inch flat brush I washed in a tonal underpainting made up of a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and turpentine. I will probably change the shapes of the rocky landscape but this stage does help me to keep the lighting concept fixed in my mind as to how I initially designed it.

Agharta - stage 1

Agharta is a Buddhist concept of the Subterranean World and is believed to be secretly located somewhere in Tibet, the gateway being guarded by Llamas. There are also connections to The Hollow Earth theory of advanced Atlanteans living under the Earth's crust in Antarctica with Nazi connections to this story through some expeditions sent by them to Tibet and Antarctica and a mysterious voyage by a U Boat to Antarctica at the very end of the Second World War.
This is a companion picture to some recent ones like "City of the Sky People" and "Butte States" in that it has a fantasy city in it with an emphasis on the sky. The lighting idea for this one is everything is in the shade apart from a low sunlight hitting the the top of the background mountain (Mt Kailash to continue the Tibetan theme) and the surrounding clouds. Lights will be on in the building windows and into the cave. It has been roughly "drawn" in with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and turpentine with some of the placements only approximate as I will adjust these as I go along.

There is also a favourite Miles Davis album of the same name...

Siren of the Evening Star

The latest in this series of "Sky" paintings, "Siren of the Evening Star" is very much just about the sky. I had a certain time of day that I wanted to set it in which made the mood more important to me than the content in a way. In fact the narrative contents of the painting are kept very small making the placement of them very important by using the Rule of Thirds in that the figure and ship are a third of the way in from each side forming a triangle with the centrally placed star (Venus). I always envisioned the distant large cloud on the horizon as the brightest part of the painting in terms of the actual design of the picture, being approximately a third in from the bottom and left sides. This placement also helps to draw the eye towards the ship on the horizon.
The model for the mermaid is as usual, the lovely Naomi Wood.
This is another painting that I hope to take to IX in October. There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.
30" x 20" Oil on linen.