International Artist magazine

 Pleased to report that "Steeltown" is a Finalist in the Cityscape Challenge of International Artist magazine and will be published in the Oct/Nov issue. This is the second painting to be accepted in consecutive issues... must be doing something right.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Call Of The Muezzin

 A small Orientalist painting of a subject I'm surprised I haven't painted before, the call to prayer by a muezzin from a minaret. I originally painted this for next month's slot on Every Day Original as time might be too tight to paint one later as I will be in the South West of the USA on a tour of National Parks for 18 days leaving on Friday but I'm having second thoughts. I might keep this back to take to IX in October and see what else I have here for my EDO slot next month instead.... not sure yet.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

Call Of The Muezzin - stage 4

 Decided to work on the minaret first, once I worked out how I was going to paint it that would set the guidelines for the rest of the foreground. Once I had painted it in I noticed a perspective problem with a building behind so I have painted it out and will sort it out tomorrow.

Call Of The Muezzin - stgae 3

 I have painted in the mid-ground cityscape today but stopped here as I need to have a think about how I'm going to paint the foreground before I finish the near buildings of the mid-ground. ...over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee of course.

Call Of The Muezzin - stage 2

 First colour pass on the sky and background where I stopped and will decide on how to proceed over tomorrow's breakfast coffee.

Colours used: Phthlalocyanine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Ultramarine Violet, Manganese Violet, Manganese Blue Hue, Lavender, Permanent Orange, Brilliant Pink, Burnt Sienna, Lead Tin yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Call Of The Muezzin - stage 1

 This will be for my slot on next month's Every Day Original but I'm painting it now as I will be away in the USA next week for 18 days and won't have much of a chance to paint anything when I get back for posting on 23 August. 

This is a subject I'm surprised I haven't painted before as it's a classic theme of Orientalism, the call to prayer by the muezzin from a minaret. Depending on how this one goes I might paint a larger one for IX... dunno at the moment.

This is the tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a brush and rag. This shows it after I gave it a wash of transparent Ultramarine Violet prior to tomorrow morning's session when I will start on the sky.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Sea Wraith

 A kind of homage to all those galleons on the high seas paintings from the Golden Era of Illustration like NC Wyeth etc etc.

This one proved to be quite tricky as the content of the picture is quite simple so each part has to look right otherwise it is glaringly obvious that things aren't working. I actually changed my mind on the sky and changed it to a different night sky to the one that was planned (that might be used in the next one..) but the main problem was getting the ship to look right not only in terms of design etc but also in terms of lighting. It's meant to be a kind of ghost ship riding the waves of a heavy sea with no human crew and the sails in tatters....

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

The Sea Wraith - stage 6

 Finally finished (mostly) the water I am now moving onto the ship tomorrow. Progress has been painfully slow due to catching Covid with the associated effects of fatigue and thought process issues. Getting better now but still fatigued etc.

So tomorrow morning will be time to look at how I'm going to paint the ship, bring on the coffee.....

The Sea Wraith - stage 5

 Still fitful progress after recently catching Covid due to fatigue as being one of the symptoms. I should have pretty much finished this by now but as I'm only working at 20% I'm still working on the water. I am starting to feel slightly better now so I should finish the water tomorrow and maybe even make a start on the ship.....

New colour used: Ultramarine Violet

The Sea Wraith - stage 4

 Finished the sky barring some tweaks later on after after darkening the sky colour nearer the horizon. Made a start on the sea but because I now have Covid I felt very tired and wasn't making good decisions so I left it here and will look at it in the morning.

New colour used: Cobalt Teal

The Sea Wraith - stage 3

 After I had given it a wash of desaturated blue/green late yesterday afternoon I went on to paint the sky today. This is the first colour pass over which I had changed my mind about the colours I was going to use over this morning's breakfast coffee as originally I was going to paint it nearer to Atkinson Grimshaw in more yellow/greens...

Colours used so far; Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Warm White.

The Sea Wraith - stage 2

 Finished the initial tonal underpainting over which I will give it a glaze of thin desaturated blue/green later today so that it's dry for tomorrow's session when I will make a start on the sky.

The Sea Wraith - stage 1

 A bit of an homage to all those galleons on the high seas paintings from the Golden Age of Illustration like NC Wyeth etc etc

This one will actually be more about the sky but that is not apparent at this stage as I am leaving this to dry before I finish the tonal underpainting with the sky tomorrow morning. I want it to look like it's crashing through huge waves with perhaps no crew as such but more like a conscious boat prowling the sea with probably malevolent tendencies...

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

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Out Of The Blue

 Another painting for my solo show next year at the Abend Gallery, Denver CO for which they suggested varying the size a bit of the canvasses so this one is smaller. It's actually based on a memory from a while ago when I was with a few friends drinking wine on the beach at Hove late at night and watching the waves come in as they hit the beach. The horizon was invisible and the waves looked like they were coming from an infinite space which gave the experience a surreal power... or was that just the wine?.... So out there in an infinite ocean maybe it's a small fishing boat making it's  way back to port, there are a number of possible interpretations... In a way the whole point of this painting is the tiny dot of light out to sea.

It has been very difficult to get a decent scan of this painting so this a photo of it taken on my iPhone which will have to do.

Oil on canvas 31 1/2" x 12".

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