Rather Good Art

 Rather Good Art have just published a new set of greetings cards of my work this time of Brighton paintings.

Below is the complete range of my greetings cards thus far.

Castle of Lost Souls

 After "Sea of Light" I return to the shadows of beautiful melancholia with "Castle of Lost Souls" another marine-based painting during this phase of getting better at painting ocean waves etc in readiness for my next gallery painting. I have only just noticed how much my work is influenced by Victorian era painting particularly the shadowy landscapes of some of the North European painters such as Keller, Baade, Knaub etc etc. ... and I think I will go deeper into this look so the next painting will be very shadowy and dramatic and has replaced the gallery piece as next in line to be painted. I don't see anybody utilising this look despite these artists being influential on many fellow Imaginative Realism/Fantasy artists many of whom I have met over the years.

This one was tricky to work out the colours in the subdued yellowy light as I didn't want it too monochrome but still in a fairly narrow colour range so it is based on a desaturated yellow/blue colour axis (with violets of course for the Complementary). I was going to have the waves crashing on the shore but decided to give it a more subdued atmosphere by the water gently lapping on the beach instead which I think gives it a better feel and is also less obvious.

Oil on linen 22" x 16"

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

Castle of Lost Souls - stage 6

 Knocked back the towers on the castle and then made a start on the foreground. Feeling my way along as I work out what colours to use, I think I have done enough as a base to work on in a couple of days time to finish.

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 5

 Finished the castle and rocks, just need to knock the central towers area back and then I will start on the foreground - I will paint the shipwreck last.

It's becoming obvious to me that my main influence at least in my Fantasy/Imaginative Realism work is paintings from the later Victorian era and Golden Age American Illustration.  I can see so many artists work from that period from Ferdinand Keller, Scandinavian Landscape painters, Symbolism, Tonalism and then onto people like Maxfield Parrish....

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 4

 The sky is mostly finished but am waiting of finishing the castle and rocks first for final adjustments. It has been tricky working out the colour transition as the castle and rocks go from left to right and meet the sky. Not a good photo actually as it all looks a bit rough here..

New colours used: Naples Yellow and Manganese Violet.

Castle of Lost Souls - stage 3

 I have roughed in some colour over the whole painting using a desaturated blue/green on the castle and cliffs. The sky is looking warmer than I intended at the moment so will have a look at it over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee and make decisions about the sky then.

Colours used so far: Dioxazine Purple, Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine green, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Yellow Lake Deep, Yellow Ochre Deep and Warm Light Yellow.

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 2

 Finished off the tonal underpainting ready for the desaturated blue wash tomorrow. I used the basic structure for the castle that I drew up yesterday and let the brush suggest shapes within it to elaborate the buildings and the cliffs and rocks that it sits on.