The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub stages 1 and 2

Seeing as I had such a good response to "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" and due to it selling so early I felt that it would make sense to paint a similar one as I sensed this one could have sold at Illuxcon to another collector. I will be painting this one in very similar colours to the last one, the main difference being the orange area of the boat's sail is replaced by firelight shining through the back of the tent in the right corner. 
These Orientalist paintings are very much fantasies in that I paint them as though they were in an Indiana Jones movie; i.e. impossible juxtapositions of Middle Eastern elements that somehow relate to Western people's fantasy of Arabian Nights-style scenes and situations. I also give them cod Orientalist titles as a nod to the original inspiration of Victorian era paintings by Gérome etc etc. Wadi Mektoub does not exist: a wadi is (in the Maghreb for instance) a river and Mektoub is Arabic for happy happenstance like the Turkish word, Kismet.
Stage 1 was painted in the morning with a thin bristle brush using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Lukas Number 5 Medium so that it was dry for the afternoon session when I gave it a tonal wash of the same colours mixed with turpentine. 
Stage 2 was today's session when I put down the first layer of colour on the sky and other areas of the painting.