The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 8

 This has been a real slog sorting out the lower level of the temple. I had originally conceived it like the market scene in the previous painting and assumed that I could replicate the effect in this one... wrong. At least you could say that I have learnt from this if nothing else. I have had to take it very slowly as I try to work out how it is going look ( i.e. not like the market scene) and finally think I have come up with something of a compromise which I will finish off hopefully tomorrow. Hopefully it comes out good enough to take to IX next month....

The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 7

 You can't tell much in the pic but I have been working on the temple and probably ready to start on the ground level tomorrow. I haven't put any figures in yet to give it a sense of scale, these will go in tomorrow. Lots to resolve in this area...

Dream Street sold

 "Dream Street" has just sold to a buyer in the USA through Artfinder. Oil on canvas 12" x 31".

The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 6

 Gradually working my way around the temple adjusting as I go along. Hopefully I can sort out the platform at the foot of the large door tomorrow....

New colour used: Cadmium Red Medium.

The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 5

 Working my way down the temple now, the next tricky bit will be the transition of the detail on the temple from the dark at the top to the fiery areas at the bottom . The pic makes it all look a bit harsher than it is....

The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 4

 

Finished the background and sky and have started on the temple - long way to go yet!

New colour used: Yellow Lake Deep

The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 2 & 3

Stage 2

 Got caught up in doing my tax books yesterday and forgot to post the progress...

Stage 2 shows the finished tonal underpainting and stage 3 shows the first colour pass on the sky and background. The painting will be based on a green/blue - red/orange colour complementary and have realised that I have to make sure there is some colour variation particularly in the fiery areas.

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

Stage 3

 

The Fire Temple Of Ahura Mazda - stage 1

 Another painting for IX next month this one follows on from the last painting in that I am developing the warmly lit areas of the street market and expanding it into areas of fires, smoke and people in front of a fire temple at night. The temple is very loosely based on the Zoroastrian temples of Iran and India (called Parsi) where fire is associated with the kind of godhead called Ahura Mazda, a name I have loved for many years and finally get to use in a painting title.

It has actually been tricky to draw up because I am leaving the brightest areas of the painting where the flames are as the white canvas and then painting around them. This entails working out where all the fires are going to be and therefore not so much room for improvisation as everything has to be composed first (there will be a chance for improvisation when it comes to painting all the figures and smaller fires). This is halfway through the initial tonal underpainting after the basic drawing up is finished and hope to finish that stage tomorrow.

Oil on linen 22" x 16"

Art Renewal Center

 Pleased to see that five of my paintings have been accepted for the Semi Final stage of the 17th International Salon competeition. Now I'm hoping that they all make it to the Final! The paintings are "Binary Sunset", "Home Sweet Home", The Night Owl", "Homeward Bound" and "The Safe House".

Red Lantern Street

 Kind of a first for me, a Chinese-themed painting which is a combination of memories of Chinatown in London at Chinese New Year and imagination. I love the colour red but find it hard to use as it is tonally quite dark so I set the lanterns in the darkest parts of the painting but then that introduced a new problem of incorporating them with the lighting in the street. I proceeded quite slowly and gradually it came together. This painting will be shown at IX next month in Reading PA.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

Red Lantern Street - stage 4

I was in London yesterday so today was my first chance to get on with the painting. The red lanterns aren't finished yet as I get on with the market stalls first. I need to get the light relationship right between the lanterns and the street so I'm taking it cautiously and stopping here for today to have my usual look at it over the morning coffee. I love red but it is so hard to use as it is relatively dark in tone and needs darkness around it to glow but it gets tricky as they approach the lights at the end of the street.

New colours used: Pyrrole Red, Quinacridone Red, Yellow Lake Deep and Cadmium Yellow Light.

Red Lantern Street - stage 3

 First colour pass on the background today using desaturated blue/green mixes and kind of making it up as I go along. I stopped here so that I can look at it in the morning with fresh eyes and see how it is going and what to do next. I need dark tones around the red lanterns so that they glow...

Red Lantern Street - stage 2

 

Busy day today and only managed to get two washes of desaturated blue/green over the cold areas.

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green and Permanent Orange.

Red Lantern Street - stage 1

 Kind of a first for me, a Chinese-themed painting. A combination of imagination and a memory of the lanterns in London's Chinatown at Chinese New Year. Seeing as they are red (and therefore dark)  they will be set against the darker areas of the painting to give them a chance to glow. As I want a soft dreamy look I have painted in the vast majority of the underpainting with a rag. Tomorrow I will give most of the painting a wash of desaturated blue apart from the warm areas of lights and hopefully make a start on the background 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.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Portal

 The second painting resulting from my recent tour around the National Parks in the South West of the USA is again another fantasy oriented painting. I saw the central tree in a sequoia grove in Yosemite the shape of which immediately suggested something a bit Lord Of The Rings initially but when I got back to the UK I decided it would be more interesting as a portal. I added the figure as I felt it needed a sense of scale. 

This painting will be exhibited at IX in mid October in Reading PA.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

The Portal - stage 3

 Finished the background and painted in the portal after deciding to go for warm yellows and oranges. I think I will need a figure walking towards the portal to give it a a sense of scale...

The Portal -stage 2

 A poor pic of the background nearly finished, it's bluer than this but the camera didn't pick it up. Stopped here because I need to make a decision on the colours inside the portal as they will affect the reflections in the foreground so on to tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee....

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