Groceries - stage 6

 Worked more on the building will hopefully finish it pretty much tomorrow. Had a problem working out how the light was going to work against the shadow areas on the windows... how much does the glass reflect in the shadow areas for instance.... I'm just winging it as ever and hoping it works out in the end.

Groceries - stage 5

 Kind of finished the background trees and have made a start on the abandoned grocery store still using the same colours.

 I'm kind of warming to this painting now once that I made a start on the building I have a clearer idea as to how it will look when finished. I wasn't sure up to this point and although it isn't (as usual) turning out how I intended I will go with what I have and make the best of it.

Groceries - stage 4

 More of the same, worked mainly on the tree behind the building today as I need to get it looking OK due to the size and prominence in the picture. If it doesn't look good it will throw the rest of the painting. Hopefully will start working on the building once I have tweaked the background, I might leave the ground around it until I have made a good start on the building.

Groceries - stage 3

 First colour pass on the background trying to paint as much of it wet in wet as possible.

Colours used: Manganese Blue Hue, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Cadmium Red, Yellow Lake Deep, Cadmium Yellow Light, Lemon Yellow, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Warm White.

Groceries - stage 2

 A second pass of the same colours from yesterday finishes the tonal underpainting. Tomorrow we start the colour...

Groceries - stage 1

 I have been thinking about working larger for a while now but haven't found the right subject yet. This one is at least 30" x 20" so it's a start....

I'm hoping to get a more painterly feel to this one so hopefully I won't be tempted to paint it too tight. A low Winter sun is hitting a broken down grocery store in New Mexico to which end I have used two colours for the tonal underpainting, my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin for the shadow areas and Transparent Maroon, a Winsor & Newton colour for where the sunlight falls - the idea of using two colours came to me last night just before I went to bed.

Oil on linen 30" x 20".

Pump Jacks

 Another Roadside America painting, this one located in Texas, hence the oil field jacks. As ever I take a relatively ordinary location/subject and then give it some nice lighting/sky to give (to me) a certain poignancy and gentle melancholy... I am trying to avoid the more obvious picturesque landscapes and even to an extent to avoid Americana too. There is something that fascinates me about the American landscape as opposed to my own in the UK, it might be that it's the space and scale that I find missing over here. There is also a residual fascination left over from all the American TV series and films that I have watched over the years and I think that filters in as well.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting including what colours I used in previous posts on this blog.