Lunar Triad - stage 5

 Still faffing around with the sky after I realised that the area near the horizon was too dark for when it came to painting the landscape so changed it today. Nearly there, should be able to make a start on the distant mesas even if the sky is still maybe not quite finished.

Lunar Triad - stage 4

 God glazes are slow going! I gave the sky a second pass of yellow and gave the landscape a blue/violet wash but unfortunately the yellow wasn't dry enough to start on the orange/pink washes later in the afternoon. It will be worth it in the end because only glazes can give you one colour shining through another which is what I want but unfortunately I can't get on with the landscape until the sky is finished...

Lunar Triad - stage 3

 I worked up the tonal underpainting a bit more and painted in the base colours of the sky with the first glaze of yellow going on late this afternoon over the blue. Hopefully I can get the first pink glaze in tomorrow...

New colour used: Lemon Yellow

Lunar Triad - stage 2

 I gave the tonal underpainting a second pass to strengthen the contrast and then once it had dried in the late afternoon gave the sky a preliminary pass of some base colours ready for tomorrow. The sky will take a few more passes as it will be made up mainly of glazes and at this point gives no indication of what it is finally going to look like!

My transition from Orientalist mosques and minarets to Star Wars Tatooine architecture is actually not much of a stretch as you can see here where that could quite easily be a mosque on a desert hilltop and not a space station....

Colours used so far: Kings Blue Light, Manganese Blue Hue, Dioxazine Purple, Lavender, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Lunar Triad - stage 1

 It seems time to start painting some stock to take to IX in October and I fancied painting another Star Wars inspired landscape of dusty Tatooine. I have been reading up on it and happily found out that in addition to the two suns it also has three moons so this one will be about that but not a nocturne as such as it is set at dusk when there is still some residual sunlight near the horizon but the sky is dark enough to see the three moons... well that's the plan any way.

This is kind of halfway through the initial tonal underpainting and plan on getting in the sky with moons and finishing the landscape underpainting tomorrow.

Oil on canvas 31 1/2" x 12".

Working Late

 I won a chance to exhibit in a group show at the Rehs Contemporary Gallery in NewYork in last year's Art Renewal Center's International Salon competition. I spoke to the Gallery Director and he suggested a loose theme of "isolation" for the show which is fine with me! The exhibition will be held in Spring 2026 and he is hoping for 5-6 pieces from each of the ten artists chosen.

This idea (Working Late) came to mind pretty quickly and I thought that I would get on with it so that I would have at least one painting under my belt for the show. I had an idea of a lonely office worker working into the night while everybody else has long gone home and wanted something Hopper-influenced which is appropriate as his paintings are often about the isolation of people in a city environment. I tried a few compositional ideas out and ended up with coming close to the building as the further back I went the idea became weaker with less obvious connection to the title.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Working Late - stage 6

 I worked on the building in the right bottom corner and then made a start on the street below, I need to tidivate some things on that building and finish the street so hoping to get all the background finished tomorrow ready to make a start on the foreground building at right. Glad I got rid of the water tower and prefer just the distant skyscraper in the mist.