Bestine Bazaar - stage 1

 This is actually at a stage after the initial tonal underpainting and is actually the first pass of colour on the sky and some preliminary tone on the buildings etc.... forgot to post the earlier ones....

This painting came out of some photographs some friends had taken in the new Star Wars area of Walt Disney World which showed the architecture and buildings of the planet Tatooine with Islamic lanterns adorning them which reminded me of my own Orientalist paintings. This made sense as the original Star Wars buildings are based on North Africa an area where I have already painted quite a few in these locations. It seemed the obvious next step to combine these two elements together as I wanted some variety in the subject matter for my paintings going to IX this year - as it turns out of course I am unable to attend so this will join the rest of them in a solo show on the IX Gallery in November.

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phtalocyanine Green, Permanent Orange,  Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Zinc White and Warm White.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Chisen Ame

 This one is intended for my upcoming slot this month (23 October) on Every Day Original, after this I will get back to work on paintings for my online show in November on IX Gallery. I wanted a rainy/misty atmosphere for this one with a sense of mystery with the lights near the shrine, are they from lamp posts or are they something else?....

I kept it pretty desaturated using mixes of colours as opposed to using neutral greys with the title approximating the Japanese for Rain Garden.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12"

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in earlier posts on this blog.

Chisen Shoyu - stage 2

 Despite an unexpected medical problem last night I am back from hospital and back to painting as it keeps me distracted/productive... Hopefully finishing tomorrow (?).

Chisen Shoyu - stage 1

 I forgot to photograph the earlier stages so what you see here is after the first colour pass after the initial tonal underpainting. This one is intended for my slot this month (23 October) on Every Day Original so I have gone back to the smaller size for this one. I'm hoping to keep it soft and desaturated to suit the misty rainy setting.

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Dioxazine Purple, Indanthrene Blue, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Zinc White and Warm White.

Oil on linen 16" x 12"

The Vampire of San Polo

 I thought I needed a bit of variety for the work going to IX this month (of course I am not attending now so all this work is already for sale) so I thought it would be nice to return to my occasional series "Vampires of Venice". The early ones in this series were basically monochromes  but I am now painting them in colour albeit desaturated - this is to make them more realistic although I might return to the sepia photograph look in the future. San Polo is one of the districts (Sestiere) of Venice and have stayed in that area a couple of times over the years although never seen a vampire yet. I have always found Venice a mysterious city and love wandering around it at night and lends itself to the notion of lurking vampires, indeed there was a Klaus Kinski film of Vampires in Venice so it's not just me that has this notion. I like to have my vampires as Nosferatu as I think they are more creepy than the Hammer Horror ones.

I quite like the contrast between the soft background and the harder edge foreground so the next painting might well go in this direction....

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

The Vampire of San Polo - stage 4

 I'm going quite slowly with this as I haven't worked out how I am going to paint certain areas so I stopped here for today after finishing most of the foreground building barring some tweaks tomorrow and finishing the vampire. Tomorrow I have to work out how I transition from the foreground to the background probably by the use of foggy areas... decisions will be made over the breakfast coffee....

Haven Gallery

 My painting "Dori Hinoiri" is being exhibited in the Haven Gallery, Long Island NY in a group show called "The Art of Antiquity" which opened last night with the Private View. Hopefully it sells and maybe more importantly it takes me nearer to getting gallery representation in different parts of the USA (I already have work with the Abend gallery in Denver CO) as I don't want to be just known as a Fantasy artist (even though they are my own self generated ideas and haven't been commissioned for print in some way).... indeed I was working solely in the UK fine art market from 2000 to 2015 and only started painting "fantasy" pictures after contact was made with Illuxcon as it was then called in 2014.

The show runs to 29 October. Oil on linen 22" x 16".