Dreaming Of Byzantium - stage 3

Getting a better idea of how the lighting is going to work now I have made a start on the buildings. It's coming out a bit subtler than I intended but that's fine, every painting somehow has a life of their own and I will go along with it.

"Dome Of The Assassin" damaged

The tear

Unfortunately while rearranging a bookcase in my studio some books fell on to some paintings, one of which, "Dome Of The Assassin" now has a tear in it. The other painting that was slightly damaged was "Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub" but that was just a couple of slight scratches that I have now painted over and now cannot be seen. Various suggestions have been made as to what to do with "Dome Of The Assassin" including repairing and then painting a small ship over it to try and disguise the damage and also a suggestion to crop the painting but that puts the composition out.......

The painting before the tear

Dreaming Of Byzantium - stage 2

I didn't manage to get anything done yesterday as I went to London to enter a couple of paintings in the Discerning Eye exhibition at The Mall Galleries. Using mainly transparent scumbles I have painted in the underpainting to the different areas of the picture which now gives a better idea as to how I intend it to look. I don't want it to be too smooth and defined so I roughly put in shapes of buildings which will form the basis for the architecture - it needs to look huge and complex without being painted too tight. I hope to make a start on the golden sunlight hitting the upper hill while the lower part of the city goes into the morning mist tomorrow.

Dreaming Of Byzantium - stage 1

After abandoning a number of ideas that just didn't cut it in the final instance I settled on this, another Orientalist picture, an imagination of Byzantium (Constantinople, the modern day Istanbul) in it's heyday. This is very much a fantasy as I have moved elements of the skyline around, made it taller and added a gateway to the port. I nearly called it "Sailing Into Byzantium" but that is very similar to the title of a famous poem. The top part of the city will be lit by a low, golden sun with the lower part melding into the morning mist (or is it evening?).
The first stage was "drawn" with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Lukas Number 5 Medium so that it would be dry for the afternoon session when I blocked in some colour underpainting including some tonal indications of what elements I intend to paint in like boats in the harbour and the buildings.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub

A father and his daughter have pitched their tent overnight by the mosque of Wadi Mektoub, a famous shrine deep in the desert. Their boat is moored in the tranquil river with their rowing boat pulled up on the riverbank, a fire burns in front of the tent for the daughter to cook some food as well as to ward off the chill of a desert night. Perhaps they are on a pilgrimage to the shrine, perhaps they are just passing through.
Due to the good response to "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" and due to it selling so early I felt that it would make sense to paint a similar one as I felt that "Bash Kadin" could have sold to another collector at the upcoming Illuxcon where this painting is heading.
These Orientalist paintings are very much fantasies in that I paint them as a Middle Eastern scene would be depicted in a Hollywood movie like Indiana Jones for example i.e. impossible juxtapositions of Middle Eastern elements that somehow relate to Western peoples' fantasy of Arabian Nights-style scenes and situations. I also give them cod-Orientalist titles as a nod to the original inspiration of Victorian era paintings by Gérome etc etc. A big influence on this picture is the work of Albert Goodwin. Wadi Mektoub does not exist; a wadi (in the Maghreb for instance) is a river and Mektoub is Arabic for happy happenstance like the Turkish word, Kismet.
Oil on canvas 19 3/4" x 19 3/4". A step-by-step progress through this painting can be found in previous posts on this blog.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 7

Somehow didn't get a lot done today; I have pretty much finished the foreground and put in the boat but didn't quite have enough time to paint in the water so instead of rushing it and maybe not doing a good job of it I decided to finish it tomorrow.

The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub - stage 6

Getting everything ready for the final push tomorrow when I finish off the foreground and water reflections. Already have the next painting planned, it's a development of the moonlit desert on the left of this one......no more mosques though.