Shivaratri

 Another painting with it's origins in a Midjourney piece this time of a Hindu Shiva temple somewhere in India (or indeed nowhere in India as this is a Fantasy painting). On certain nights of the year called Shivaratri devotees stay up all night in the temple (or home) so this gave me the excuse to have some lights on in the temple as dawn rises in the sky. There is something very Old School about the look of this painting, maybe it's the airbrushed-looking sky that to me reminds me of Chris Foss and the look of those book covers from that period (I don't use an airbrush btw it's just oil paint with brushes...

I follow no religion but have always been interested in how humans left to their own devices in different areas of the world have come up with all the weird and wonderful creation myths, religions, clothes, symbols and buildings etc that to them are so important often unfortunately with no tolerance to what other people have come up with at the same time. To me they are all interesting as Anthropology I guess...

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Midjourney