Time To Go Home - stages 1 & 2

 I have used this title before but what the hell.... After painting a couple of quite fiddly pictures recently I fancied getting back to something Tonalist that is about colour and mood so I thought that it would be nice to do another Brighton/Hove seafront painting but instead of a nocturne this one would be daylight albeit with plenty of clouds! The sky is from a photo I took years ago on Brighton seafront one winter afternoon as a snowstorm approached from the East and five minutes later you couldn't see much at all as the snow got going.

The first stage was the tonal underpainting for which I used my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied with a small bristle brush and a rag.

The second stage was the first colour pass on the sky and another layer of the underpainting mix on the land. Colours used for the sky were: Ultramarine Violet, Manganese Blue Hue, Permanent Orange, Yellow Ochre Deep, Yellow Lake Deep, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White.

The Endless City

 I have painted this for sale for my slot on Every Day Original which comes up on 13 November as I didn't have anything that was suitable/small enough for their criteria. I thought that I would paint an Orientalist piece as these seem to sell quite well and have combined this with a skyscape which I know is what Every Day Original suggested when I was  first invited. The sky is meant to be ambiguous in that it could be night or day or if not that then at least has a magical dusty light to it. It is a fantasy city, vaguely Arabian Nights in which I have used different architectural styles from different parts of the Islamic world.

Oil on linen 16" x 12". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts on this blog.

The Endless City - stage 5

 I have been working on the buildings today, when they are all in and before I paint in the foreground tree and foliage I will give the cityscape a thin scumble to highten the dusty appearance and to give it more of a sense of distance.

The Endless City - stage 4

 I have painted in some tonal mixed transparent blue over the buildings and will then start painting them to finish tomorrow. It won't be as contrasty as it looks here and will make it softer. Any other decisions will be made over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee...

The Endless City - stage 3

 Pretty much finished the sky using the same colours as yesterday and then I put some dark tones into the buildings using the paint mix for the underpainting. This helps me for tomorrow when I make a start on the city and gives me a better idea of how I am going to paint it when it comes to tomorrow's morning coffee when decisions are made on colours etc. I am planning the sky to be ambiguous, kind of a halfway house between a night sky and a daytime one.

The Endless City - stage 2

 First colour pass on the sky using mixes of Prussian Blue, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White.

The Vampire of Ponte Storto sold

 Just had a message that the first of my "Vampires of Venice" paintings has sold on Artfinder. I enjoyed painting them so at some point I will do some more but have another commission to get on with as well as getting something ready to put up for sale on Every Day Original so will wait awhile.

Oil on linen 20" x 16"

The Endless City - stage 1

 I am painting this as a possible picture to sell on my slot on the Every Day Original site in mid-November. Any work sold on the site must be no larger than 18" x 12" and should sell for a maximum of $500; I actually don't have anything that size already painted which is why I am painting this. I had some feedback from them that my paintings of skies would be of interest so I am combining a moonlit sky with an Orientalist theme as I seem to do quite well with Orientalist images when it comes to sales.

This is the tonal underpainting stage which was "drawn up" with a small bristle brush first using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then the tone was applied with a rag using the same paint mix.

16" x 12" oil on Winsor & Newton Smooth Cotton Canvas.

Street Corner Blues

 I didn't post any progress photos of this painting as it was a commission and I think the person that commissioned it should see it first before anybody else. A very nice French lady from London wanted this painted as a present to her boyfriend and they drove down from London yesterday to pick it up. As always I face these moments with trepidation when the buyer sees their painting for the first time, doubly anxious this time as it needed to be liked by two people not one so when I let them into the studio I feared to hear words like "Oh" or "Hmmm..."

Anyway I worried needlessly as they both loved it so I felt emboldened to explain the design and colour choices that I had made as I painted the picture. She had seen my work on the internet and told me the paintings that she liked so we talked on the phone and narrowed down the subject matter and feel that she was looking for. We settled on a theme that I was working on some ten years ago, buskers in deserted city streets and after a couple of pencil roughs I went ahead with the final painting. I equate buskers with painters like myself; they basically show what they can do and then hopefully people will give them money for it... and I am just the same, I paint pictures on spec and then hope that....people will give me money for them.

It is based around a yellow/violet colour complementary, oil on canvas 23 1/2" x 23 1/2".

Street Corner Blues - stage 1

 

This is a commission that I am now painting for a nice lady in London and is actually the second painting with this title but I'm using it again because it seemed appropriate. A return to my urban scenes with buskers, the client asking for it to be not too American despite the diner in the foreground. I changed it to "Cafe" and removed a foreground fire hydrant and replaced it with a London-style bollard, I guess the background could be any big city. There will be a few people around in the background but no cars. 

The lighting is planned to be a warm afternoon sun hitting the foreground with most of the buildings across the street in shadow with a thin strip of sky in the middle.

This is the first stage of the tonal underpainting using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied with a small bristle brush, a 1/2" flat and a rag.

Oil on linen 23 1/2" x 23 1/2"