Stop - stage 4

 I painted a semi opaque layer of a mix of Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Brilliant Pink, Genuine Chinese Vermilion and Zinc White over the top part of the sky - I will need to build this up in glazes until I get the colour I am looking for (I want the pink to show through it). The sky needs to look luminous and beautiful as a contrast to the fairly dreary crossroads in the foreground. I am hoping the red "stop" sign will look good against all this, I might well paint that in tomorrow.

Roy's

 Another Roadside America painting. I think I am honing it down as to what I am looking for in these pictures, relatively ordinary American roadside locations often painted in a quite almost romantic light but always deserted. Has something happened or is it just a quiet moment? A feeling of unease without any obvious clues so it's left up to the viewer to make up their own narrative as to what's going on... or not.

Still playing around with reds, this time based more around pinks and reds, it reminds me of a Magritte painting "Empire of Light" (I think that's the title) which is no bad thing. Maybe the pink is too much here and pushes it towards kitsch a bit... dunno.

Oil on mdf 18 1/2" x 18 1/2"

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

Stop - stage 3

 I decided against having the whole sky as layers of glazes and instead mixed up some Quinacridone Red and Zinc White and painted that as the first proper coat, mixing a bit of Permanent Orange and Pale Violet for the sky near the horizon. I will paint a few glazes at the end when and where I need them.

I then ran another pass of the Burnt Sienna/Winsor Violet mix on the landscape before roughing in the bushes with a Permanent Sap Green/Winsor Violet mix. Happier with it now. This one is meant to be fairly dark and moody with a luminous dusk sky...

Roy's - stage 3

 I painted a more opaque version of the mix I used on the clouds for the second pass and just need to finish off the sky tomorrow when it's dry. I have also roughed in some colour on the building and the land around it using pretty much the same colours with the addition of Naples Yellow.

Stop - stage 2

 

As I am painting this one on a very fine cotton I am going to make up the sky in a series of glazes so this is the first one which was Quinacridone Red thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag. I then gave the landscape a second pass of the basic underpainting mix to start darkening it.

Roy's - stage 2

 This is the first pass of semi opaque paint for the clouds and a second layer of the basic underpainting mix over the rest of it.

Colours used: Manganese Violet, Permanent Sap Green, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Yellow Lake Deep, Zinc White and Warm White.

Stop - stage 1

 

Unexpectedly the pink sky underpainting for "Roy's" was still wet this morning so I was unable to get on meanfully with it. Fortunately I had a connected painting waiting in the wings which I have now brought forward, "Stop".

Both paintings are starting with a basic pink/red sky colour but this one will have no dramatic clouds and instead have a hopefully beautiful glow in the sky over a deserted and slightly surreal landscape.

Whilst thinking about my work last night I came upon a phrase that somehow covers what I am looking for in these Roadside America landscapes - Beautiful Unease. I don't want to paint "pretty" landscapes but beautiful ones tempered by a background feeling of unease subtly put across by what is there or not there, for instance the absence of people, cars etc. Has something dreadful happened or is it just a very quiet time of the day? With "Stop" there will be a pretty desolate landscape but above it will be a (hopefully) beautiful sky. Humans have left their mark on the landscape as we see a crossroads, road signs ant telephone poles but...

Oil on linen 20" x 16".

This is the tonal underpainting for the landscape using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin.