Angkor Dawn - stage 1

 Another painting coming out of a Midjourney piece mixed in with memory. I was there about ten years ago when a small group of us went into Angkor Wat before dawn and walked around the temple in the near dark with the whole place to ourselves, nobody else was there, amazing. We then left the temple and made our way to the lake from where we watched the dawn and sunrise - along with hundreds of other tourists.

This is the tonal underpainting for which I used a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brushes.

The Midjourney piece is below.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Tera Umi sold

 Pleased to report that "Tera Umi" sold straight away on Every Day Original as soon as it was published yesterday. So far every painting that I have posted on EDO has sold immediately, this one to a collector that already has at least six of mine already.

"Tera Umi" is the first painting of mine to use a Midjourney AI piece as the composition source. Please see previous posts about this.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Guggenheim

 An old painting from 2007 "Guggenheim" has just sold through Asgard Arts. Oil on board 18 1/2" x 18 1/2".

Magic Night and The Lost Cathedral

Magic Night

 Packing up these two paintings over the weekend to send to an old friend that has bought them in installments. I was originally going to deliver them and then Covid came along...

"Magic Night" (developed from a plein air painting) oil on board 18 1/2" x 18 1/2"

"The Lost Cathedral"  oil on linen 22" x 16".

The Lost Cathedral

 

Tera Umi

 Decided to stay with this title otherwise it would have been called "The Sea Temple of Sea Temple"... which is no good at all if you can speak Japanese.

I'm trying something a bit different for this Every Day Original slot, previously they have all been of Middle Eastern subjects and all have sold immediately but seeing as these recent Japanese themed paintings have been well received (and sold) I thought that I would try one with Every Day Original - this one comes up for sale on 28 June so only just finished it in time.

This is the first painting that is the result of using the AI program Midjourney in that instead of trying to compete with the stunning results other artists are achieving I am using it more as a composition generator to produce images that can trigger a painting idea or come up with something that I can adapt. I first messed around with Midjourney for a while and came up with the image below. Over my usual breakfast coffee I realised that the misty cloud at the bottom could easily be transformed into the sea. From there I envisaged rocks and a stormy swell and then realised I could introduce a Hokusai homage with the wave at bottom right. As you can see I kept some elements of the original Midjourney piece and changed others.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12". Based around the colour complementary of yellow/violet and violet/green depending on which colour wheel you use.

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

Midjourney

The Sea Temple of Tera Umi - stage 3

 Gave the background a second pass of colour and gave the foreground cliff, rocks and temple a wash of subdued blue/grey ready for tomorrow. The sky is not quite finished yet so hope to finish that tomorrow along with the foreground sea etc. Should be on course to have this ready for my Every Day Original slot....

The Sea Temple of Tera Umi - stage 2

 The title is only provisional as Tera Umi already says  Sea Temple in Japanese so really the title at the moment reads "The Sea Temple of Sea Temple"..... meh.

Started to add the first colour pass today based around a violet/yellow colour complementary.

Colours used: Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Manganese Violet, Permanent Sap Green, Permanent Orange, Lemon yellow and Zinc White.

Fireside Inn sold

 Fireside Inn has just sold on Artfinder to a lady in Romania which is a first for me... wonder what it will cost by FedEx?!. I don't think it's in the EU so that might make it simpler in terms of Customs, Duties etc.

One of my Roadside America paintings from a few years ago, I think the location was somewhere in Montana but not sure now. I note that I used a looming shadow coming from behind us falling on the building, a theme that I have returned to recently.

Oil on canvas 16" x 20".

The Sea Temple of Tera Umi - stage 1

 After an extended hiatus from painting while I went to the USA for a while I am finally back to working again. I'm hoping to have it ready for my upcoming slot on Every Day Original on 28 June... might be a bit tight. If it is I have an older painting I can use instead.

Well everybody is talking about the Midjourney AI program/app as people are getting some stunning results with it. I don't intend to compete with those guys (although I would love to reach their standard) and have resolved to use it as a composition generator to produce images that can trigger a painting idea or come up with something that I can adapt.

This is the first one off the production line as it were. I messed around with Midjourney for a while and came up with the image below. Over my breakfast coffee I realised that the misty cloud at the bottom could easily be transformed into the sea. From there I envisaged rocks and stormy waves and then realised I could introduce a Hokusai homage with the wave at bottom right. As you can see I kept some elements of the original and changed others.

This is the tonal underpainting stage using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".