Happy New Year!

 A big thank you to all the people who have looked at my blog over the past year!

Here is my top nine or whatever it's called of 2021. A productive if somewhat dreary year socially one can only hope for a better year to come although based on past experience every year has it's ups and downs so here's to a 2022 with more ups than downs!

Pump Jacks - stage 1

 I was planning to do a large painting next but I haven't come up with a subject and treatment that I am happy with yet so I thought that I would get on with another Roadside America/The Big Sky painting as I get a bit twitchy when I'm not painting something. There will be a point soon when I show some of these to some USA galleries to see if any of them are interested in representing me although I do have a connection with a gallery in Denver CO so I will show them the new work as well.

The location for this is somewhere near Hagerman in Texas although as usual it will be the sky and the mood that the painting is more about. The ground is painted with my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet and the sky colour is a mix of Permanent Orange and Warm Light Yellow.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

The Harem Barge of Ali Pasha sold

 I am pleased to see that "The Harem Barge of Ali Pasha" has sold on Every Day Original within minutes of being put up on the site to a collector that already has a number of my paintings already on her walls. I enjoy thinking up these Orientalist fantasies and it's nice to see them snapped up so quickly (yes they are being sold at an attractive price) so let's see what I come up with next for my February 28 slot on Every Day Original.

Oil on linen 16" x 12".

Every Day Original

 "The Harem Barge of Ali Pasha" goes on sale tomorrow December 28 on Every Day Original at 3.30pm EST. Oil on linen 16" x 12".

IX 2022

 I am pleased to see that I have been accepted for the Main Show at IX in Reading PA next year. Quite if it happens or I am able to get there remains to be seen! Although one has to make plans ahead the Covid situation makes everything uncertain and subject to change so .... that's the plan.

"Isochron Scepter" sold in auction

 A painting I did in 1997 for a MTG card originally called "Null Rod" but subsequently changed to "Isochron Scepter" has just sold in a private auction between MTG collectors for $29,000.00! I note in my records that I sold it in 2015 for $495 the original buyer must have sold it to the current owner sometime in between but I suspect for nowhere this sum!

The good news is that the seller has kindly offered to give me 5% of the sale price! This is a complete one-off and really does not affect the price of anything else I have done or indeed will do so I can't up my prices on the back of it!

Acrylic and bronze powders on board approx 14" x 10".

The River Palace of Nawab Khan - stage 3

 Sorry about lack of posts on this one, too many social things going on as Christmas approaches!

I have now painted in roughly all the landscape apart from the palace and although it doesn't look how I intended (again) I will go with the flow and finish it this way - I had originally intended it be more blue. This one is very hard to photograph and looks too harsh here compared to the original....

The River Palace of Nawab Khan - stage 2

 Halfway through the first colour pass - I saw it in my mind's eye as bluer than this so I've left it like this for today and will have a look at it tomorrow over my breakfast coffee.

Colours used so far: Prussian Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Kings Blue Light, Permanent Sap Green, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Zinc White.

The River Palace of Nawab Khan - stage 1

 I saw this in a dream a couple of nights ago and felt obliged to paint it; in the dream I was on a holiday flight over India and saw this as I looked out the window...

This might be an alternative to "Storm Over The Citadel" for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original on 28 December if it comes out OK. It's going to be mainly in blues but not as a nocturne, I see it as some sort of strange afternoon light quite soft and romantic. I have put the hint of an horizon in it since this photo was taken and now makes more sense. I already have the bones of a back story sorted out for this but will hold off writing it until it's finished. It is set in Rajasthan with vaguely Mughal style architecture and a landscape that can be found in the Udaipur area, lusher than most of Rajasthan which is mostly desert.

This is the Tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin for the landscape with Lead Tin Yellow Lemon for the basic sky colour.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Storm Over The Citadel

 I have too many competing ideas for the next Roadside America/The Big sky painting so I thought I would get on with this, an Orientalist painting for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original on December 28. It was originally going to be darker and more dramatic but once the early stages of the sky were in I quite liked how it looked like a dust storm coming over which was quite appropriate as the location is Cairo in Egypt. I was there in 1984 and remember that you can see the Pyramids from The Citadel which is quite a sight. Hoping to go back one day to see the new Museum of Antiquities which I believe is not finished at present.

Based on a green/blue - red/orange colour complementary. Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting including colours used in previous posts on this blog.

Storm Over The Citadel - stage 2

 Actually it's stage three as I forgot to post where I had got to yesterday. I have now roughed in the clouds and made a good start on the buildings - I have left the actual citadel as it is for the moment as I feel I need to have another look at it over my breakfast coffee tomorrow. I am wondering if I need to introduce a little variety in colour in the buildings so I will leave it for the moment. It isn't actually coming out how I intended but that's OK as I quite like the look of where it's going - it kind of looks like a sandstorm coming in which is quite appropriate as the location is Egypt...

Colours used so far: Phthalocyanine Turquoise, Winsor Violet, Pale Violet, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow, Yellow Lake Deep, Winsor Yellow, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Storm Over The Citadel - stage 1

 I have too many competing thoughts about my next American landscape painting and couldn't decide what to get on with so I thought I would leave it alone for a few days and paint something Orientalist for my upcoming post on Every Day Original on 28 December. You can't tell yet but this one should have a different feel to previous Orientalist paintings which should make itself apparent when I make a start on the clouds.

This is the tonal underpainting stage for the city using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet and then I painted a layer of yellow as background for the sky with Lead Tin Yellow Lemon.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Lonesome

 This one follows on from "Cold Front" where there is a desolate landscape with a dramatic sky that nobody sees as there is nobody around to this one wherein there is another desolate high desert landscape but this time there is an indication of human presence. A snow covered track in the foreground leads to a distant solitary light suggesting that somewhere out there is somebody's home hence the title "Lonesome" which occurred to me the moment I conceived the idea for the painting and never found a reason to change it. I was going to make the sky more dramatic and threatening but I thought it would be better to have a more lyrical feeling to the picture that is set at dusk, my favourite time of day. I was also tempted to put in some warmer colour in the sky near the horizon but again I decided against it so that it would not distract the eye away from the single point of warm light which is actually the whole point of the painting, no pun intended!

This is another of my paintings which could be in either my Roadside America or The Big Sky series. Oil on linen 22" x 16".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting including the colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Lonesome - stage 4

 Used a darker mix of the previous colours for the clouds and darkened the landscape with the Permanent Sap Green/Winsor Violet mix. The single tiny light near the horizon can now be more clearly seen.

Lonesome - stage 3

 I have roughed in the clouds and added a bit of yellow to the sky nearer to the horizon before going over the landscape with a transparent mix of Permanent Sap Green and Winsor Violet. The single distant light can now be clearly seen on the horizon to the right of centre.

I never use black btw, I always prefer to mix a very dark colour out of various paints so that I can get a warm or cold dark (black)  depending on the colour scheme I am using at the time. This "black" was made up of Permanent Sap Green and Winsor Violet.

Other colours used were: Ultramarine Blue. Prussian Blue, Kings Blue Light, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow, Zinc White and Warm White.

Lonesome - stage 2

 Painted a second layer of the Burnt Sienna/Winsor Violet over the landscape and painted a darker gradated blue over the sky in readiness for tomorrow when I start on the clouds.

Lonesome - stage 1

 

This one follows on directly from "Cold Front"; another largely flat horizon, a relatively desolate landscape somewhere in New Mexico with in this case a solitary distant light near the horizon implying somebody living in a house in pretty much the middle of nowhere. At the moment I am thinking of having the landscape with a dusting of snow again but maybe I will change my mind as I go on... This one differs to "Cold Front" in that there is the indication of somebody actually seeing the glorious sky in this one whereas in "Cold Front" there is more a sense of melancholy as there is nobody there to see the beautiful natural landscape and sky.

"Lonesome" just popped into my head for the title and am sticking with it unless something better suggests itself.

This stage is the tonal underpainting for the landscape using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and the basic background colour for the sky using a mix of Kings Blue Light, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Cold Front

 I seem to be in a phase of painting vast spaces with flat horizons at the moment so here's another one and indeed the next one too as this painting has gave me an idea for another. The location is in New Mexico and the sky is a combination of a memory and a bad photograph taken from a train on my way back from London late on a Winter afternoon recently. It seems from a bit of research that it was a cold front passing overhead hence the title of the painting. I decided to have some snow on the ground for this one as it does snow in New Mexico in the Winter and I felt it would be a nice change from my recent regular desert landscapes.

This is another in my Roadside America/The Big Sky series of paintings in which I feel that I am developing a "look" i.e. a dark mainly monochrome landscape using a lot of transparent paint set against a clean but dramatic sky. I actually used to paint this way over forty years ago and it has taken this long to realise what I was doing so that I can now develop it in a more rational and directed way!

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

There is a short step-by-step progress including the colours I used through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Cold Front - stage 3

 Getting it nearer to what I want, hoping to finish the sky tomorrow before painting in the snow on the landscape. The clouds are too flat at the moment and have no depth - hopefully fixed tomorrow...

Vaughn sold

 "Vaughn" has just sold through Artfinder. One of my Roadside America paintings from a few years ago. Oil on canvas 20" x 20".

It's interesting to see how my work is evolving, I wouldn't paint this how I have done here these days, it would be way moodier with the foreground buildings darker and less saturated in colour...

Cold Front - stage 2

 Getting it nearer to how I see it in my mind and once the sky is finished (this is the first pass) it will be time to paint in the snow.

Colours used: Ultramarine Blue, Kings Blue Light, Winsor Violet, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Permanent Sap Green, Yellow Lake Deep, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Zinc White.

Cold Front - stage 1

 Another Roadside America painting but at this stage there is no indication as to what it is going to look like. For starters the landscape is going to have snow on it and secondly the sky is based on a memory and a bad photograph of a sky I saw last week on the train back home from London in the late Winter afternoon. Upon a bit of research it seems that it was a cold front that was passing overhead (hence the title) but due to the basic sky background colour not being dry yet I have not been able to get any further with it and will have to wait until tomorrow to make a proper start on it. The location is in New Mexico where it does occasionally snow in the depths of Winter. It looks a bit like the surface of Mars at the moment....

Oil on linen 22" x 16"

Texas Crossing

 Still haven't found a location for my next rainy Roadside America painting so I got on with this one after seeing this sky over the sea playing boules on Brighton seafront last week. I needed a flat horizon for the sky to work so I chose a lonely location in Texas. 

Most of the paintings in this series are kind of about man and his (her!) position in the natural world i.e. pretty small! I often choose abandoned or run down examples of human activity within a vast and often hostile landscape (which is why I often choose the desert states of South West America) as though they are kind of facing a losing battle against the elements. If it's an urban scene I always have them deserted as though something terrible may have happened like post nuclear holocaust or climatic catastrophe... or at least an ambiguous hint at that. I'm looking for beauty but tinged with unease and in this case melancholy - a beautiful sky but nobody there to witness it. Nature just carries on while we live our little lives regardless of the bigger picture that we are changing the climate to make things worse for ourselves. Nature adapts and carries on regardless of our welfare, we think short term while Nature will go on  for many millions of years whether we hang around or not.

One day I will gather all the threads that make up the content of these paintings together and write down a coherent explanation of what I'm up to.

Oil on linen 22" x 16"

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting including what colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Texas Crossing - stage 2

 Due to some distractions to deal with I only managed to get the first pass on the clouds done today using a semi-opaque mix of Prussian Blue, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange and Zinc White painted over the basic pale blue background.

Texas Crossing - stage 1

 I still haven't found the right location for the rainy Roadside America painting I want to do but while playing boules on Brighton seafront a couple of days ago with friends I took some pics of an interesting sky out to sea which gave me an idea for another one to get on with in the meantime. I thought the sky would suit a flat horizon just like I saw it above the sea and decided that a flat lonely landscape like you can get in Texas would be a good subject. So it will another one like "Stop" where you have a beautiful sky in a desolate place that probably nobody is seeing which I think adds to the melancholy.

This is the tonal underpainting for the landscape using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and a mix of Prussian Blue. Permanent Orange and Zinc White for the sky.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Galata Sunrise sold

 I am pleased to say that "Galata Sunrise" sold as soon as I posted it on social media. Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Galata Sunrise

 As I haven't yet found a suitable location for my next Roadside America painting (another rainy one) I thought that I would get on with an Orientalist piece for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original - except that it will be postponed to possibly December at the earliest.

I am carrying on with this different way of painting skies and thought it would be nice to do a dawn/sunrise sky over my usual minarets etc. In the end I settled on Istanbul and this view of the European side of the city from the (third?) Galata Bridge with the Eminonu Mosque as the main feature. Seeing as it is a fantasy painting I have felt free to rearrange the architecture somewhat and have made the mosque higher off the ground than it is in real life. I originally planned it to be just a pink dawn sky but thankfully I decided to have an area of yellow light near the horizon which has gave it a lot more variety of colour than otherwise it would have had.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting including what colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Galata Sunrise - stage 2

 Very hard to get a decent shot of it at this stage, the buildings are kind of darker than this but this will have to do. I'm kind of winging this as I go along and have left it here for today as I need to look at it again tomorrow with fresh eyes over my breakfast coffee to work out how I am going to paint the foreground...

Galata Sunrise - stage 1

 This is only a working title at the moment and isn't really stage one either but I forgot to photograph the basic drawing so here we are...

I was originally going to start another Roadside America painting, a rainy one but I haven't found a location that I'm happy with yet so I thought that I would get on with an Orientalist one instead for my November slot on Every Day Original - except by the looks of it the slot might be coming up in December...

This is a view looking along the old Galata Bridge towards the European side of Istanbul (I will put a few figures in later on) and thought it would be nice to carry on with the different way I'm painting skies at the moment and do a soft dawn sky which would suit an Orientalist picture like this. I don't want the city and bridge to be too dark and trying to keep it a dusty red brick colour with some smoke and morning mist around. I'm glad I introduced that yellow in the sky at right as that will vary the colour and allow me to introduce it's complementary, violet into it as well.

Colours used so far: Winsor Violet, Ultramarine Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Brilliant Pink, Alizarin Crimson, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Warm White Yellow, Zinc White and Warm White.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Stop

 Another Roadside America landscape (or is it part of my "The Big Sky" series?) where I am trying out using reds and in this case, pinks. I wanted a fairly desolate and lonely location offset by a beautiful sky above it to in some ways to highten the melancholic aspect but also in way giving it a feeling of hope maybe too? I like pictures that have an ambiguous quality to them and always try to avoid "Pretty" and more interested in Beauty but with an edge of menace or unease. In fact earlier on in this painting I came up with a phrase when I was thinking about what I was trying to achieve in my work - Beautiful Unease.....that seemed to cover it.

I have a thing about desolate crossroads, probably resulting from the myth about Robert Johnson selling his soul to The Devil at a crossroads somewhere in Mississippi in exchange for mastery in playing the Blues.

I tried to make the sky look as rich in colour as I could by painting the landscape in dark unsaturated colours as a contrast.

Oil on fine cotton 20" x 16".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting including the colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Stop - stage 4

 I painted a semi opaque layer of a mix of Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Brilliant Pink, Genuine Chinese Vermilion and Zinc White over the top part of the sky - I will need to build this up in glazes until I get the colour I am looking for (I want the pink to show through it). The sky needs to look luminous and beautiful as a contrast to the fairly dreary crossroads in the foreground. I am hoping the red "stop" sign will look good against all this, I might well paint that in tomorrow.

Roy's

 Another Roadside America painting. I think I am honing it down as to what I am looking for in these pictures, relatively ordinary American roadside locations often painted in a quite almost romantic light but always deserted. Has something happened or is it just a quiet moment? A feeling of unease without any obvious clues so it's left up to the viewer to make up their own narrative as to what's going on... or not.

Still playing around with reds, this time based more around pinks and reds, it reminds me of a Magritte painting "Empire of Light" (I think that's the title) which is no bad thing. Maybe the pink is too much here and pushes it towards kitsch a bit... dunno.

Oil on mdf 18 1/2" x 18 1/2"

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting including what colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Stop - stage 3

 I decided against having the whole sky as layers of glazes and instead mixed up some Quinacridone Red and Zinc White and painted that as the first proper coat, mixing a bit of Permanent Orange and Pale Violet for the sky near the horizon. I will paint a few glazes at the end when and where I need them.

I then ran another pass of the Burnt Sienna/Winsor Violet mix on the landscape before roughing in the bushes with a Permanent Sap Green/Winsor Violet mix. Happier with it now. This one is meant to be fairly dark and moody with a luminous dusk sky...

Roy's - stage 3

 I painted a more opaque version of the mix I used on the clouds for the second pass and just need to finish off the sky tomorrow when it's dry. I have also roughed in some colour on the building and the land around it using pretty much the same colours with the addition of Naples Yellow.

Stop - stage 2

 

As I am painting this one on a very fine cotton I am going to make up the sky in a series of glazes so this is the first one which was Quinacridone Red thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag. I then gave the landscape a second pass of the basic underpainting mix to start darkening it.

Roy's - stage 2

 This is the first pass of semi opaque paint for the clouds and a second layer of the basic underpainting mix over the rest of it.

Colours used: Manganese Violet, Permanent Sap Green, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Yellow Lake Deep, Zinc White and Warm White.

Stop - stage 1

 

Unexpectedly the pink sky underpainting for "Roy's" was still wet this morning so I was unable to get on meanfully with it. Fortunately I had a connected painting waiting in the wings which I have now brought forward, "Stop".

Both paintings are starting with a basic pink/red sky colour but this one will have no dramatic clouds and instead have a hopefully beautiful glow in the sky over a deserted and slightly surreal landscape.

Whilst thinking about my work last night I came upon a phrase that somehow covers what I am looking for in these Roadside America landscapes - Beautiful Unease. I don't want to paint "pretty" landscapes but beautiful ones tempered by a background feeling of unease subtly put across by what is there or not there, for instance the absence of people, cars etc. Has something dreadful happened or is it just a very quiet time of the day? With "Stop" there will be a pretty desolate landscape but above it will be a (hopefully) beautiful sky. Humans have left their mark on the landscape as we see a crossroads, road signs ant telephone poles but...

Oil on linen 20" x 16".

This is the tonal underpainting for the landscape using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin.

Roy's - stage 1

 This is another one trying out this different way of painting a sky with a colour underpainting and of course to try out using red again. This one can join my Roadside America series and will hopefully be very moody in atmosphere with again a feeling of nobody around/left...

This is the underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin for the bottom and a mix of Quinacridone Red and Zinc White for the sky.

Oil on mdf 18 1/2" x 18 1/2".

Pawn

 The impetus for this came from the distant rain in "Cafe Red" so I got on with this before I had finished the earlier trilogy of small paintings loosely themed on American road signs.

I am gradually honing down what I am trying to do with these "Roadside America"/ "The Big Sky" paintings. Each painting has a number of elements that suggest a narrative but in fact I leave that up to the viewer's interpretation as to what is going on. With this one for instance there is a moody sky with the hint of a tornado developing, there is a  deserted street - where is everybody? Are they all avoiding the incoming twister or has something dreadful happened and everybody is dead/gone? Is that bullet holes in the Pawn sign? But the power to the road crossing lights are still on so maybe it's all OK and it's just a quiet moment that has been caught... or has there been some apocalypse and everybody is dead/taken and the power is working on automatic before flickering to a final stop...

Most of my paintings are what I call from the musical term "Jams". What I mean is that they are improvisations on a basic theme - for this one the twister and the wan sunlight in the sky just came out as I painted almost like the painting itself was calling the shots as to what should be happening. Then once they were painted in that dictated the lighting which now had a brighter area at left that reflected the sunlight... all these things were not in my original plan for the painting. I like painting this way, admittedly it leaves more room for things to go wrong but also opens up the possibility of something way more interesting to happen too. I will continue to develop this different way of painting skies with flat colour as the ground instead of a tonal underpainting, this won't work for all skies by any means but it adds more to my repertoire!

Oil on linen 30" x 20".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Sun 'n Sand

 It has taken a while to finish the trilogy of small paintings of American road signs that I started a while ago as I have done another larger painting at the same time which I have just finished. This one was meant to alleviate the relative gloom of the other two by being in bright sunlight on a hot afternoon. Whether I have achieved that I am not sure as ever... I suppose this one is a bit nearer to the Americana genre in that I am using a roadside motel sign, but it is a genre I try to avoid as the point of the painting is the mood and design and not really the sign as such. I guess it's another for either my "Roadside America" series or "The Big Sky" series...

Oil on mdf 12" x 12". 

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Pawn - stage 6

 I have pretty much finished the background so it's now time to make a start on the foreground signs and posts tomorrow.

Pawn - stage 5

 I have ran some semi transparent scumbled rain over the background buildings and roughed in some colour onto the foreground so that I have a decent base to work on tomorrow. I am keeping this deserted as it gives a frisson of a possible narrative - where is everybody? Has something happened?....

Pawn - stage 4

 I finished off the upper clouds and got the background buildings ready for tomorrow when I paint in the rain coming down from the clouds.

Pawn - stage 3

I mixed up a more opaque layer for the second coat on the sky and is now looking more dramatic than I originally intended so I will have a look at it again over breakfast coffee tomorrow and decide if I want to tone it down a bit... or not. I also worked on the background buildings a bit more. 

I like this new way of painting skies but I need to work at it some more, probably with different background colours.

Pawn - stage 2

 I painted the first scumbled layer of semi transparent paint over the sky, deciding over my breakfast coffee to have a hazy sun so that I can have some nice bright reflections in the foreground puddles. I then roughed in some colour on the background buildings to get them ready for the misty streaks of rain that are going to go over them. I am also going to try and paint in some splash back from the rain hitting the ground, if it works it should make everything look even wetter.

Colours used: Winsor Violet, Manganese Violet, Permanent Sap Green, Burnt Sienna, Genuine Chinese Vermilion, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Warm White.

Pawn - stage 1

 This painting follows on from "Cafe Red" where I liked the way I had painted some distant rain on the landscape using a semi-transparent scumble. This one is hopefully going to look really wet as I try to combine the scumbled rain over the background with a very wet looking foreground with lots of puddles and reflections. It is thematically linked to the other recent paintings in that it is about road signs again, this time a sign for a Pawn Shop. I will also get the chance again to use red again which I am looking forward to.

I am going to use a green/blue background colour for the rainy sky as opposed to the pink one I used on "Cafe Red"

Oil on linen 30" x 20". I thought this format would suit the image better that the square format that I have been using recently.

Bookstore

 Still trying to get to grips with using red. I put dark colours around the red areas but used an analgous colour scheme which may have diluted the intensity of red that I was looking for so I have started another painting using red in a different way. This is the third time that I have painted this building... one day I'll get it right! I wanted this one to be moody with a strong design focusing on the red so I guess I managed to do that but.... 

Some parts of this was painted wet-in-wet which I enjoyed doing, indeed I used to paint a lot more this way a number of years ago and I think I need to bring this back again into my work. The building is an adult book store in Detroit but I decided to leave out all the lettering to focus more on the shapes and colour. Anyway it's another one for my Roadsde America series.

Oil on mdf 12" x 12".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts on this blog.

Sun 'n Sand - stage 3

I have worked on the sky and put some tentative strokes onto the ground to establish where the shadows and highlights are to go. I will probably put the lettering on the sign next so that I can knock it back later as I want the sun to be behind the sign and need to make it look as though we are looking into the sun.

Colours used: Ultramarine Violet, Kings Blue Light, Manganese Blue Hue, Permanent Orange, Yellow Lake Deep, Cadmium Yellow Light, Lead Tin yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Warm White.

Bookstore - stage 4

 Thank god for Cadmium Red. After painting a second coat on the darks I started to work on the red brickwork and realised I didn't have a ballsy red so I headed down to Cass Art in Brighton and came out with a £41.00 tube of Michael Harding's Cadmium Red which when I got back provided me with the ballsy red that I needed.

Cafe Red

 This follows on from "Station Red" in that the sky didn't turn out how I wanted so I thought I would try again. This one is nearer but more importantly I have another way of painting skies which is nice... this one is still not quite how I want it but it will do. The indication of rain in the distance at right has gave me an idea for something else to try but I have a couple of others to finish first - mind you I will draw it up very soon.

This one has a certain mood that I like so in that way I am happy with it, the way the ground is painted comes from me trying working up the underpainting to finish in transparent layers a couple of years ago so these periods of experimentation do produce results in the end.

Oil on mdf 12" x 12".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts on this blog.