Fireside Inn

Another in my ongoing Roadside America series this one being located in a small town in Nebraska (can't remember the name). I wanted a stormy sky behind the building that is lit by a low late afternoon sun so a yellow/violet complementary colour combination seemed logical. All these paintings are as much about colour and atmosphere as they are about the location itself and I'm looking for a sense of beauty of the ordinary but with an edge of menace/threat/unease to it as well. Whether that is the sense of the "sublime" in art I am not sure! Maybe it's that Cold War Angst coming in again......Oil on linen 16" x 20". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts on this blog.

Fireside Inn - stage 4

Worked a lot on the building today although looking at it now I think I need to soften the edges of the shadow falling on the building. I have been mixing Lukas Number 5 Medium into the paint on the building as I want a nice texture on it.

Fireside Inn - stage 3

Got the sky pretty much how I want it although I might give it a thin yellow glaze at the end . I put in some indication of the background but kept it soft and out of focus and then went on to paint in the preliminary highlights on the sunlit boarding - there will be less definition between the slats in the final version.

Fireside Inn - stage 2

I put some colour down today; some violet mixtures for the sky and some warm colours on the building that will sit nicely underneath the yellow highlights on the sunlit paintwork. As you can see I am having some slightly lighter cloud at the top and right to give some variety to the sky area as well as making sure there are some touches of the building colours in it for colour harmony.

Fireside Inn - stage 1

Another in my Roadside America series, this is located in Nebraska (can't remember the town). I want the light from a low sun hitting the building against a dark, stormy sky so I guess it will be based on a yellow/violet complementary colour axis. This time I have opted for a less traditional composition and will be hoping to accentuate the strong design although I am still utilising the Rule Of Thirds as to the placement of the shadow falling on the building. I first "drew" it up using an old bristle brush with a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet mixed with Liquin and Lukas Number 5 Medium and then in the afternoon after it was touch dry I painted in a tonal underpainting with a rag using the same paint mixture thinned with turpentine. I am also tweaking the sky on "Main Street" which I will post up when I'm happy with it.

Some good news and some bad news

Whilst away in Leicester for a few days last week I had two contrasting pieces of news come in. Firstly the good news was that I have been accepted as a finalist in the 2014/2015 ARC Salon. This is a competition ran by the Art Renewal Centre in the USA for Realist Art and I am very pleased to be included alongside artists whose work I have long admired as well as talented friends from Illuxcon. I have no idea yet which painting/s have been accepted in which category but I am definitely included in the catalogue and have a chance of exhibiting a painting in the USA show.
The bad news was that I was not accepted for the Sky Landscape Artist Of The Year competition. They say that I could attend the heats as a Wild Card entry but I am not going to bother. Sod them!

Main Street (Jet)

This is another in my ongoing series of Roadside America paintings. It is in a very small town in Oklahoma called Jet which was the working title for the picture but I decided to call it "Main Street" in the end. I want this series to have a certain atmosphere; on the one hand they are almost romantic paintings of ordinary places in America but the combination of the way they are lit, the lack of human activity and the ominous shadow hints at something uneasy. What is casting these shadows? Is there a giant monster walking the land or something worse? I like paintings that are beautiful but have an edge of darkness to them, I don't like Pretty. I guess that there is an influence of Hopper in this although unintentional. I find the American urban landscape much more visually interesting than the UK, maybe there is a certain nostalgia in them from all those TV series and movies I saw as a child as I usually look for buildings from that period for these paintings. Is there some Cold War angst in them?...
Oil on linen 20" x 16". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting on previous posts on this blog.