The Safe House

 The fourth in this as yet untitled series of metaphorical landscapes is set somewhere in an imaginary Kansas as I wanted a flat horizon with a house looking lonely and exposed in the vast featureless landscape. I wanted to paint something compositionally simple in contrast to the previous painting that was full of incident but this of course has it's own potential problems in that everything that is there must look right as the eye is not distracted by superficial detail. For some reason I kept thinking of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz...

I spent a lot of time on the sky as due to it's dominance it had to look right and in the end deviated a lot from my original reference but I think it succeeds in looking rather threatening!

The next one will have an urban setting...

Oil on canvas 39" x 16".

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

The Safe House - stage 5

 OK the sky is finished bar a few tweaks later on perhaps so I have roughed in the house (left all the windows at the moment as I haven't decided which one/s will have a light on) and made a start on the foreground Fall grassland. This will be the next tricky area, something simple in general shape will need still to look interesting....

The Safe House - stage 4

 I have deviated more and more from the original reference for the sky as time has gone along but at least it's getting nearer. The trouble with a simple composition is that everything in it has to be interesting and look right as there is no extraneous detail to distract the eye so it has been important to get the sky right. Just maybe I can finish it tomorrow...

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Violet, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow Reddish-Extra, Cadmium Golden Yellow, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Warm Light Yellow and Warm White.

Samui Fuyu sold

 "Samui Fuyu" was sold yesterday on Every Day Original, the first sale of '24.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Safe House - stage 3

 Once I had introduced the oranges in the sky at left I developed it so that it stretches across three quarters of the storm cloud. The next problem is to integrate it into the lighting on the right on the clouds, I have made a start but felt I should stop here and reassess it over tomorrow's breakfast coffee. When the storm cloud is finished I have to paint in the distant clouds in sunlight on the right. 

I am posting the original sky reference to show how I usually deviate from the original reference often for compositional reasons and invariably change the colours.

Reference photo

The Safe House - stage 2

 

First colour pass on the sky and a long way to go yet. I am introducing more orange into the clouds as there is something about it that I like, let's hope it works out. I will be in London tomorrow do no more progress now on this until Thursday...

The Safe House - stage 1

 The next painting in the current series this one is set somewhere in Kansas as I wanted a flat horizon for this one as the house must look as lonely as possible within a vast featureless landscape to get the visual and metaphorical idea across. I wanted paint a landscape that is in sharp contrast to the previous one, going from a landscape full of incident to something extremely simple in terms of content. By having such a simple composition causes it's own potential problems: everything must look right as the eye is not being distracted by superficial detail so I need to make sure that the clouds aren't too simple in terms of tonal variation and the foreground grassland must look right too.

This is the tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush.

Oil on canvas 39" x 16".

Infected By Art

Binary Sunset

 A big thank you to the jurors of Infected By Art 12 who have accepted two of my paintings for inclusion in Infected By Art 12, "Binary Sunset" and "Castle Dracul".

"Binary Sunset" is oil on canvas 39" x 16' and "Castle Dracul" is oil on linen 16" x 12". Both are sold.

"Binary Sunset" was a rare foray into Star Wars territory and "Castle Dracul" into Horror...

Castle Dracul

 

Passing Through

 For various reasons (explained in earlier posts on this blog) this has taken a long time to finish. The third in this as yet unnamed series of metaphorical landscapes this one has a nod to the Hudson River School which is appropriate as they are all American landscapes although none so far of a specific location and all are basically imaginary. I had a specific design to this painting in my head at the outset, a composition that made use of the panoramic format with dark hills at top taking up two thirds from the right, all the landscape at bottom being in shadow and an area of brightly lit mountains in the background in the remaining third of the picture at top. As the landscape is in shadow this would be a suitable tonally darker area for the campfire to be at a third in from the right - most of my paintings are based on The Rule Of Thirds in terms of composition.

This series is centred on a common theme of a small lit area in a usually vast landscape of some kind with this particular one being a metaphor for our individual journey through life, we are literally just passing through... through the vastness of the physical world and the complexity of society and all that that brings. That's why it's a camp fire, something temporary...

Oil on canvas 39" x 16".

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

 

Passing Through - stage 15

 Nearly there, I just have the foreground tree to paint in and then some tweaks here and there and it's finished. I hope it was worth it!

Passing Through - stage 14

 Painted in the foreground rocks at left and indicated where the camp fire is going ready for tomorrow.

This painting has taken longer than I anticipated, maybe because of the relative complexity and certainly because I made it harder for myself by not putting in the whole underpainting before I went to colour, I reckon I could have saved a couple of days at least... I guess you learn something from every painting.

The painting is a metaphor for our individual journey in life, we are literally just passing through.... through the vastness of the natural world and the complexity of society and all that that brings. That's why it's a camp fire, something temporary....

Passing Through - stage 13

 Painted in the landscape at left up to the rocks which I will work on tomorrow. Hopefully just a couple more days left to finish it, it's been hanging around too long on my easel. I think now it's looking like the colours and lighting that I originally conceived, lots of rich Autumn/Fall colours all in shadow.

New colour used: Naples Yellow.

Passing Through - stage 12

 Finally got the rest of the underpainting done for the foreground and at the end of the day I have just found some reference that will help me sort out a problem area in the middle of the foreground which I will paint in tomorrow.

The next one in this series is going to be a sky piece...

Passing Through - stage 11

 This painting has been slow going, I guess because I'm trying to make an invented landscape look real or at least something like a Hudson River School painting...At least I've learnt a lesson: get the underpainting finished before you go to colour. I think it would have been quicker to paint if I'd had a bit more patience and finished the underpainting instead of steaming on with the background with the foreground unresolved. I have worked out the land at left and have just worked out the rest of the foreground but it's too late in the day to make a start.

Passing Through - stage 10

 OK pretty much finished the bottom of the background hills, I think tomorrow is time to paint in the underpainting on the foreground before I paint in the riverbank and camp fire.

Passing Through - stage 9

 Finished the background hills for the moment, tomorrow I move on to the trees across the riverbank behind the campfire. Once I have some darks in the foreground I will know how much to knock back the background hills, if they need to....

Passing Through - stage 8

 I'm leaving the distant sunny landscape alone now and will tweak it if it needs it later on. Really glad I painted in that underpainting on the hills as I was able to get in a lot of work on the first colour pass today and should finish them tomorrow

New colours used: Permanent Sap Green and Oxide Of Chromium.

Passing Through - stage 7

 OK that's it for the background, I'll tweak it later ... made a start on the hills in shadow before realising that I really needed to give it some structure first so I worked up the underpainting which should now give me a good base to work on. All I need to do is to work out the colours...

Passing Through - stage 6

 Blimey, nearly there on the background, tomorrow morning's session should finish it.... been a slog, not helped by me changing my mind on the colours... I really need to make a start on that background hill in shadow....

Passing Through - stage 5

 Slow progress so far as I struggle with the colours in the sky and background. This is due to me having a specific idea as to how the colours will go in the rest of the picture and need to get the sky etc right before I proceed. Hopefully tomorrow...

New colours used: Kings Blue Light and Yellow Lake Deep.