Ninth Avenue - stage 5

I have actually nearly finished it this afternoon but the light was so bad in the studio that I couldn't photograph it so here it is as of lunchtime today. I messed around with sky again before carrying on with the buildings trying not to put too much detail in. It 's getting nearer to what I'm looking for but I think I will try this again but with a different kind of cityscape or even a landscape.

Ninth Avenue - stage 4

Still not sure about the sky, I did change it this morning in that I changed the clouds to a light blue/green from pink but may still tone down the saturation of the green/blue when I come back to it in a couple of days. In the meantime I have worked on the buildings at left and right trying to keep it relatively simple and avoid being tempted to put in every little detail as I often do.

Ninth Avenue - stage 3

Unfortunately too dark in the studio this afternoon to carry on painting so this is the morning's work on the first colour pass on "Ninth Avenue". Basing it on a blue/green - red/orange colour complementary I am just weighing up the idea of altering the saturation on the sky, I will make a final decision tomorrow morning with fresh eyes to see if it still bugs me or not.

Ninth Avenue - stage 2

I decided to add a bit more contrast to it so I could see how the tonal design is going to work by giving it another pass of the Burnt Sienna/Winsor Violet mix with a rag before going to colour tomorrow.

Elies Dendro

The title is Greek for an olive tree as it's a painting of a very old olive tree on the island of Zakynthos in Greece although through the use of desaturated colour it looks more like England! When I thought it was finished a couple of days ago I kept looking at the very cold looking colour I had used and realised it was bugging me too much so I decided to give it a thin glaze of a green-blue to warm it up a bit. It now has more of a dreamlike quality to it which is better but I'm still not sure about this one, some work out others don't but then that's why I'm doing these paintings at the moment to try things out.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Ninth Avenue - stage 1

Continuing with my series of small paintings trying things out this is the first stage of "Ninth Avenue",  a New York cityscape. I have very roughly "drawn" it up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then used the same mix and rubbed in some tone with a rag. I intend to break up the lines and shapes a lot but this will give me the underlying framework for the scene with the brightest part of the picture being the light hitting the back of the car.

Cloudscape 2

I seem to have forgot to post this one that was actually painted in October, the second in my series of small sky-based paintings this one based on the simple idea of a single dark cloud against a streaky cirrus clouds background. It originally had a landscape at the bottom left of a hillside with some trees but I painted it out as I wanted the painting to be more of an abstract pattern.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Artists & Illustrators 2019 Calendar

Artists & Illustrators magazine has one of my paintings, "The Lost Garden" included in their 2019 calendar. It has been used for December as it is very cold and wintry, not suitable for July for instance! It costs £3.99 from The Chelsea Magazine Company website, the link for which is below:
https://www.chelseamagazines.com/shop/product/artists-illustrators-2019-calendar/

Elies Dendro stage 3

I have finished it but intend to give it a thin glaze of green when it's dry as I just don't like the colour. I will then post up the scan of the final version as it is not easy to photograph as usual.

Elies Dendro - stage 2

Worked on the background and made it softer and slightly warmer by adding a bit of Lemon Yellow to Warm White for the sky and foliage. Not sure if I like the desaturated colour but as these are all experiments I'll finish it off and move on to the next one having hopefully learned something from this one.

Elies Dendro - stage 1

The title is Greek for an olive tree - it's a painting of a very old olive tree on the Greek island of Zakynthos. This is the first in a series of small landscape paintings in which I try things out. This one will be a pretty much monochromatic one in which I push around the paint thinned with Liquin with some different, fairly knackered brushes, no initial drawing just straight to paint at the first stage. I am using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Indanthrene Blue, one semi opaque the other transparent. I am probably going to keep the tree trunk in sharp focus and the background will be soft and atmospheric... or I may change my mind as I go along. 
Oil on linen 16" x 12".

Cloudscape 6

This one was instigated a few nights ago on the way home when I saw white clouds in the sky as the light had faded pretty much to night. I thought an Orientalist setting might suit it and then realised that I had Orientalist architecture on my doorstep, Brighton Pavilion. I chose an orange/blue complementary with just a touch of orange/yellow in a couple of windows to offset the predominately blue sky using a warm tonal underpainting in the first stage.
The blues were mixes of Kings Blue Light, Prussian Blue and Permanent Orange and the "black" was a mix of Prussian Blue and Permanent Orange. A tiny touch of Cadmium Yellow was painted in the window, all colours Michael Harding.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a short progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Cloudscape 6 - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

This one was set off a few nights ago on the way home when I saw white clouds in the sky as the light was fading to night, so they are not lit by the Moon for instance. I thought an Orientalist setting might suit it and then suddenly realised that I had Orientalist architecture in the city where I live, Brighton Pavilion. It will make more sense when I get the clouds painted in the sky. I will have some artificial orange light in a couple of windows at left making it a blue/orange complementary colour axis.
The first stage was painted in with a small bristle brush for the outlines using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then the same paint mix was used for the tonal underpainting, a flat brush used to fill in the silhouette and then the sky was put in with a rag using the same paint mix with a dash of turpentine.
For the second stage I painted in the sky with a mix of Prussian Blue, Kings Blue Light and Permanent Orange and then filled in the silhouette with a very dark mix of Prussian Blue and Permanent Orange, I don't use black.

Stage 2

Cloudscape 5

I would have posted this sooner but the white paint took longer to dry. This is essentially the same cloudscape as I used in the previous painting but I have put it into a colour setting. Actually I was going to put more distant clouds in the sky at the bottom but quite liked as it was so I left it.
I used a new style of brush on this one that seems idea for painting soft clouds, Proarte Masterstroke Series 61 Filberts that have a more rounded tip than the usual filberts, the soft synthetic hairs also really help too.
The next one is going to be a night sky with light clouds after I saw this on my way home a few days ago.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a very short progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Cloudscape 5 - stage 2

First colour pass on the sky using a new style of brush that seems ideal for clouds - Proarte Masterstroke series 61 filberts which have a much more rounded end than a normal filbert and the soft synthetic hair really helps too.
The colour mixes so far are made up of Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, Winsor Violet, Unbleached Titanium, Permanent Orange and Yellow Lake Deep, all apart from the Van Dyke Brown being by Michael Harding.

Cloudscape 5 - stage 1

On this one I am combining most of the sky of "Cloudscape 4"with a line of late afternoon sunlit sky  at the horizon.
This tonal underpainting stage was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then the same paint mix with a small amount of turpentine added was applied to the sky with a rag. The land was put in with a Flat brush using a mix of Van Dyke Brown and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin.

Cloudscape 4

I might actually title this "Wish You Were Here" even though I have used the title before. For this one I wanted to work in a very limited palette keeping it dark and moody so I used mostly desaturated colours. I chose to locate it on the Brighton and Hove seafront near to where I live with an advertising ice cream cone, normally associated with happy times, set against a lowering sky and deserted seafront path. My dark sense of humour coming out a bit on this one! 
Keeping the colours desaturated I have kept them within a warm grey framework, no black being used and with Unbleached Titanium acting as the white. Mixes of Burnt Umber, Van Dyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, Indigo, Zinc White and Lemon Yellow were used for all the warm brown/greys - a mix of Michael Harding and Winsor & Newton colours.
Oil on linen 16" x 12". 
A step-by-step short progress of this painting is in previous posts on this blog.

Cloudscape 4 - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

For this one I wanted to work in a very limited palette and to keep it very dark and moody. I chose to locate it on the Brighton and Hove seafront with an advertising ice cream cone, normally associated with happy times set against a lowering sky and deserted seafront path. I might call it "Wish You Were Here" even though I have used the title before.
Stage 1 was roughly "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then using the same paint mix but thinned with turpentine the tone was applied with a rag.
Stage 2 was the first colour pass on the sky which although not apparent in this photo the colour is a warm brown grey partially achieved by letting the underpainting colour show through. I did not use black, Unbleached Titanium was used as the "White" at this stage with the greys made up of mixes of Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Indigo, Zinc White and Lemon Yellow, mostly Michael Harding colours.
I have actually already finished the painting but am waiting for the paint to dry so I can scan it as digital photography does not come close to the colours and tones that are in the painting itself.

Stage 2

Cloudscape 3

Another of my small sky-based paintings that I am doing to try things out. The more successful ones may get new titles in the future. This one is located on Hove seafront only a few minutes walk away from where I live although it could be anywhere. The next picture may well be a monochrome using all neutral greys, we shall see.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a very short progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Cloudscape 3 -stage 2

First colour pass over the whole painting using mixes of Kings Blue Light, Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White - all Michael Harding.

Cloudscape 3 - stage 1

Actually "Cloudscape 2" is finished but haven't got round to scanning it yet and wasn't actually planning on starting this one today...and then just went for it. A painting of Hove seafront but really it could be anywhere, the sky was seen from a bus high up on the South Downs heading back to Brighton from seeing my parents in the care home at Woodingdean.
This was stage was "drawn" up using initially a small bristle brush and then washing the rest of it in with a rag using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquitex and turpentine.