Lunar Triad

 Now that I have finished the series for my upcoming solo show at the Abend Gallery I thought that I would get on with some paintings to take to IX in October and fancied doing another Star Wars Tatooine panorama. Luckily I was doing some research and discovered that it it has three moons in addition to the two suns so that was a perfect theme for this painting. It is quite evident here that it is not much of a jump for me to go from an Orientalist desert scene with a mosque and minarets to a Tatooine Science Fiction landscape - the building style is Futuristic Mosque just as the architecture in the movies is a version of Islamic North Africa where they were filmed. The deceptively simple sky took a long while to paint as it is made up of glazes which I kept adding to until I was happy with the light.

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

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

 

Lunar Triad - stage 9

 Painted in the foreground rocks at left and made a start on the buildings/space port ready to hopefully finish tomorrow. Glad I've managed to get some variation of colour in the landscape.

Lunar Triad - stage 8

 Managed to paint in the landscape at right with some variation in colour that I wanted and will now move on to the landscape in the left corner before I finish with the buildings/space port. I guess the sky is finished.... maybe.

Lunar Triad - stage 7

 Just had a couple of days away from painting so glad to get back to it today. I decided to work on the central section of the landscape first whereby I worked out the colours to use which I will now continue with for the rest of the painting - basically bringing in a kind of blue into the highlights that aren't picking up the sunlight. This gave me the variation in colour that I was looking for...

New colours used: Pale Violet and Naples Yellow.

Lunar Triad - stage 6

 I may well tweak the sky as I go along but it's good enough for me to be able to start on the landscape now so today I managed to paint in the background. Good to stop here so that I can evaluate the colours I'm using etc as I will be away from the studio tomorrow and will get back to it on Wednesday.

New colours used: Manganese Violet, Brilliant Pink and Yellow Lake Deep.

Lunar Triad - stage 5

 Still faffing around with the sky after I realised that the area near the horizon was too dark for when it came to painting the landscape so changed it today. Nearly there, should be able to make a start on the distant mesas even if the sky is still maybe not quite finished.

Lunar Triad - stage 4

 God glazes are slow going! I gave the sky a second pass of yellow and gave the landscape a blue/violet wash but unfortunately the yellow wasn't dry enough to start on the orange/pink washes later in the afternoon. It will be worth it in the end because only glazes can give you one colour shining through another which is what I want but unfortunately I can't get on with the landscape until the sky is finished...

Lunar Triad - stage 3

 I worked up the tonal underpainting a bit more and painted in the base colours of the sky with the first glaze of yellow going on late this afternoon over the blue. Hopefully I can get the first pink glaze in tomorrow...

New colour used: Lemon Yellow

Lunar Triad - stage 2

 I gave the tonal underpainting a second pass to strengthen the contrast and then once it had dried in the late afternoon gave the sky a preliminary pass of some base colours ready for tomorrow. The sky will take a few more passes as it will be made up mainly of glazes and at this point gives no indication of what it is finally going to look like!

My transition from Orientalist mosques and minarets to Star Wars Tatooine architecture is actually not much of a stretch as you can see here where that could quite easily be a mosque on a desert hilltop and not a space station....

Colours used so far: Kings Blue Light, Manganese Blue Hue, Dioxazine Purple, Lavender, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Lunar Triad - stage 1

 It seems time to start painting some stock to take to IX in October and I fancied painting another Star Wars inspired landscape of dusty Tatooine. I have been reading up on it and happily found out that in addition to the two suns it also has three moons so this one will be about that but not a nocturne as such as it is set at dusk when there is still some residual sunlight near the horizon but the sky is dark enough to see the three moons... well that's the plan any way.

This is kind of halfway through the initial tonal underpainting and plan on getting in the sky with moons and finishing the landscape underpainting tomorrow.

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

Working Late

 I won a chance to exhibit in a group show at the Rehs Contemporary Gallery in NewYork in last year's Art Renewal Center's International Salon competition. I spoke to the Gallery Director and he suggested a loose theme of "isolation" for the show which is fine with me! The exhibition will be held in Spring 2026 and he is hoping for 5-6 pieces from each of the ten artists chosen.

This idea (Working Late) came to mind pretty quickly and I thought that I would get on with it so that I would have at least one painting under my belt for the show. I had an idea of a lonely office worker working into the night while everybody else has long gone home and wanted something Hopper-influenced which is appropriate as his paintings are often about the isolation of people in a city environment. I tried a few compositional ideas out and ended up with coming close to the building as the further back I went the idea became weaker with less obvious connection to the title.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Working Late - stage 6

 I worked on the building in the right bottom corner and then made a start on the street below, I need to tidivate some things on that building and finish the street so hoping to get all the background finished tomorrow ready to make a start on the foreground building at right. Glad I got rid of the water tower and prefer just the distant skyscraper in the mist.

Working Late - stage 5

 

Worked more on the buildings in the middle distance and then left them and roughed in some colour on the nearest buildings at left as I hope to get all the city buildings done tomorrow but need to work on them together hence getting everything ready.

Working Late - stage 4

 Worked some more on the background but can't really finish it until the nearer buildings are in so I stopped here and roughed in some colour on the nearer buildings ready for tomorrow - ditched the water tower at right as it was bugging me....

Hard to get a decent photo of this one so only the final scan will show the correct colours and contrast.

Working Late - stage 3

 First colour pass on the background. Not a great pic of it and looks a bit harsh here and not quite the colours I intended but I will have a look at it tomorrow morning and decide how to finish the background. I have also gave the rest of the painting a couple of desaturated blue washes to get it ready for the colour to go on.

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

Working Late - stage 2

 Well that's the initial tonal underpainting done so I guess tomorrow it's time for a desaturated blue wash and then go to colour... unless I correct the tones in this colour first before the blue wash - to be decided over tomorrow's breakfast coffee.

Working Late - stage 1

 When I entered the Art Renewal Center's International Salon last year I won a prize in that it is an opportunity to exhibit in a group show at the Rehs Contemporary Gallery in New York, the show being the ten winners selected from the entries to the Salon. I spoke to the Gallery Director and he is suggesting the loose theme of "Isolation" for the show which is fine with me! The exhibition will be held in Spring 2026 and he would like to have 5-6 pieces from each artist.

This idea (Working Late) came to mind pretty quickly and I thought that I would get on with painting it so that at least I will have one painting under my belt for the show. I want to have an image of some lonely office worker working late into the night expressed by a light on in an office building that is otherwise dark. I tried a few compositional ideas out and ended up with this one of being quite close to the building as the further back I went the idea became weaker with less obvious connection with the title.

This is halfway through the initial tonal underpainting  which I hope to finish tomorrow and uses the usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Rain In The Canyon

 In a way this is the first painting to directly come out of last year's tour of the South West USA National Parks and is a memory of the Grand Canyon which at this time of the year (July) regularly has a rain storm about 4.00 in the afternoon. We had to make a dash for cover with us all trying to get photos as we hurried for shelter. This is really a composite of three different locations along the Rim and I struggled with the foreground quite a lot and in the end I had to get rid of some of the rock and put more vegetation in as the area was originally dominating the picture and I wanted the focus to be on the sun hitting the distant ridges in the canyon.

I have painted this as my submission painting to the International Guild Of Realism exhibition in a gallery in Santa Fe in July and is why I have gone for a slightly more realistic and less imagined painting this time.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Rain In The Canyon - stage 6

 Tweaked the rain and put a bit of warm light on the face of the canyon wall at right before making a start on the foreground.... and then realised that there was too much uninteresting rock in the foreground so I decided to cut into them with some more bushes which has broken them up and made them not so dominant in the composition. Much happier with it now and will finish the foreground tomorrow....

I am painting this as my application piece for an upcoming show by the International Guild Of Realism at a gallery in Santa Fe in July hence it is a bit more photographic than my usual work as the accent on the show is definitely "realism".