Alterations to Oliver's Island and Cloudscape 5

Oliver's Island

Whilst I had all of the recent trial paintings out together in my studio a couple of them kind of bugged me to change so while I am organising the new commission I thought I would fix them. Also I have come down with a cold and don't have a clear enough head to think about something important!
I decided to add a few Whistleresque lights and reflections to "Oliver's Island" (even though originally I viewed it as a bit obvious).
The white of the canvas showing through the skyline in "Cloudscape 5" seemed too glaring so I decided to make it a darker and richer orange.

Cloudscape 5

Infected By Art

Pleased to hear from Infected By Art that two of my paintings have been accepted for inclusion in Volume 7; "City Of The Sky People" and "The Cloud Palace", both paintings having been sold last year. Congratulations to everybody else that also got work accepted! This is the fifth year in a row that I have had work published in this annual series of books.

City Of The Sky People

The Cloud Palace

IX 2019 Commission

I am delighted to have received an IX 2019 commission for a large painting to be shown at Goggleworks in Reading PA in October. This is a chance to really go for it in terms of expressing something personal with gusto and putting my work in front of a wider audience within IX and beyond. Patrick and Jeannie Wiltshire are gradually amassing a collection of large commissioned pieces that will be exhibited (I think they have already started) around the USA and beyond to promote Imaginative Realism to the wider public and art collectors who may not be aware of this kind of art. 
I felt that I needed to up my game a bit in terms of how I paint before undertaking the commission to which end I have produced eighteen paintings over the last tree months since IX 2018 trying things out, kind of tweaking the way I do things. Some have worked, some haven't, such is the way when experimenting but I have learned some new approaches and technical ways of doing things too like I have discovered some great brushes for painting clouds and changed the way I do the underpainting for instance.
I have now stacked them all up together in my studio in chronological order bottom to top and I am going to absorb what I've learned from them and start thinking about what I'm going to do for the commission itself.

Taking Stock

Not counting the demise of "Pulborough", I have painted eighteen small pictures trying things out with varying degrees of success over the last three months. I am only seeking to tweak the way I do things and haven't been trying things in a scattershot manner producing wildly differing paintings that have no relevance to what I'm looking for...maybe I should have...
I have arranged them in my studio chronologically from left to right, bottom to top and will consider  what I've learned and what I'm going to do with what I've learned in the next few days. Initial thoughts are that I like the overall effect of the blue/green tree painting "Elies Dendro", something quite different about it, wether it's worth developing ...we'll have a think on it.

Pulborough No More

Oh dear, sometimes a painting just doesn't have a happy momentum to it and every so often I abandon one because I just feel it can't be rescued. This is one of them, whatever colours I seemed to try I just simply hated it and coupled with the ordinary subject matter I just lost my temper and put my fist through it...which considering it's supposed to be linen went through surprisingly easily...maybe it was the sheer frustrated force of my fist that did for it.
I feel better now.
It's now time to take stock of what I've been trying out these past three months which is the subject of my next post...or the one after that.
16" x 12" Oil on linen with hole in it.

Pulborough - stage 2

First Version

I painted in the sky yesterday in green/blues and oranges and didn't like it so I rubbed it off and left it until today to look at it with fresh eyes and decide what colours to use. I chose a blue/violet sky with yellow/white clouds and tried to emphasise the diagonals which were getting lost in the first version. I'm thinking of going for reds/violets mixed into the browns and greens to try and keep the palette fairly limited based around violets...

Current Version

Full Moon Over Cuckmere Haven

Finally dry after three days I have been able to scan it and post up the finished painting. I have returned to a favourite landscape, the iconic Cuckmere Haven in East Sussex on the South Coast of the UK. Based on a blue/orange colour complementary there is a single tiny spot of orange light where the Coastguard Cottages are at the mouth of the river although orange was used throughout the painting to moderate the colour and saturation of the blues. The light of the unseen moon is reflected in the nearest curve of the river meander. I painted all the colour in two sessions over one day as a way of preventing myself overworking and putting too much detail into the picture, a trait I'm trying to subdue!
When I've finished "Pulborough", the painting I'm struggling with at the moment, I will call a halt to these small paintings and get going on a large commission. If I have the time I might post up an overview of all what I've learned from this series...
Oil on linen 16" x 12".