Riddle of The Sands - stage 5

 I decided over breakfast coffee to have warm shadows and cold highlights so first I painted in more darks over the landscape and Sphinx using a Burnt Sienna/Dioxazine Purple/Phthalocyanine Blue mix and then tried out the cold highlights using desaturated mixes of the sky colours mixed with a bit of the original underpainting mix. I'm stopping now so that I can look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow morning and make final decisions on how to paint the rest.

Riddle of The Sands - stage 4

 Sky is pretty much finished barring a few tweaks. I decided to go my own way with the sky as opposed to imitating the colours that Atkinson Grimshaw used - maybe that's for another painting....

Riddle of The Sands - stage 3

 First colour pass on the sky, very rough as I needed to get some colour over all of it to see how I'm going to try and give it an Atkinson Grimshaw in Egypt kind of look. I might warm it up to be more like Grimshaw or I go my own way with it... decisions for my breakfast coffee tomorrow.

Colours used: Phtahlocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Cobalt Teal, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Light  and Warm White.

Riddle of The Sands - stage 2

 Now finished the initial tonal underpainting using the usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush. It is now ready for the desaturated green/blue wash....

Riddle of The Sands - stage 1

 This will probably be the last for a while in this "Arabian Night" series (although there might be another...) of essentially Orientalist nocturnes. This one is obviously The Sphinx in Gizeh, Egypt (yes not actually in Arabia again) and have chosen a view of it near to when Western archeologists first started to dig it out of the sands as a nod to my inspiration source, Western Orientalist paintings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There will be my customary glow from a fire at the bottom of the statue with the sky colours taken directly from another favourite painter of mine, Atkinson Grimshaw so this painting is basically Atkinson Grimshaw in Egypt....

This is the "drawing up" stage when I use a thin bristle brush to "draw up" the outlines using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin. I then painted in some rough tone on the statue using the same mix. Tomorrow I complete the initial tonal underpainting....

Oil on linen 22" x 16"

Stamboul Moon

 The sixth in my "Arabian Night" series... and yes I know this is Turkey not Arabia! This one was going to be a campfire and tents in the desert but somehow it changed into a view of Istanbul at night. This series has really settled on a theme of moonlit nocturnes which is fine by me as I enjoy painting them. This will probably be the last but one in the series but you never know I might get some more ideas...

This is based around an old postcard view of the Eminonu district of Istanbul with the Yeni Cami mosque in the background, I have been told by a Turkish friend that this area looks nothing like this now. I was originally thinking of having a fire in the city at bottom right but could think of no good reason for it being there so I changed it to a glow from some street lighting... or maybe there is something going on there...

Based on a desaturated orange/blue colour complementary, oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

Stamboul Moon - stage 4

 I have now painted in all the buildings some of which will be taken back a bit tomorrow and have also roughed in the water ready for tomorrow's session during which I may be able to finish the painting. I also need to decide over tomorrow's breakfast coffee how I'm going to paint the water, I could go for the more painterly way of doing it as it is now or put in wavelets etc with wet reflections....

Stamboul Moon - stage 3

 OK finally got a title for it... The sky is pretty much finished now and I have made a tentative start on the buildings which I hope to finish tomorrow. Originally I saw the buildings pretty much as silhouettes against the sky but I have decided to give them a bit more form by picking out some details on the architecture. Still not quite sure what to do with the light area at the right - I think a fire is too dramatic so it might just be a glow from some lights in the street.

Arabian Night 6 - stage 2

 Still untitled, just can't think of one at the moment.

Anyway, this is the first colour pass on the sky over an initial desaturated blue transparent glaze that I washed across most of the painting apart from where the moon is. I'm trying a different moonlit sky on this one, hopefully it works, I need to stop now as I need to look at it with fresh eyes in the morning to see how/where it's going.

Colours used so far: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Turquoise, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange and Warm Light Yellow.

Arabian Night 6 - stage 1

 Haven't got a title for this one yet.... I fancy having a fire at bottom right, but can't think of a good reason for it to be there yet. I think I'll have a good think about this over tomorrow's breakfast coffee....

This is number six in this series of nocturnes and is of course of Istanbul, not Arabia which it strictly should be if the series is called "Arabian Night"....

This is the initial tonal underpainting stage using my ususl mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and flat brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim

 Deep in the Arabian Desert lie the ruins of Qalat Qadim, once an important stopping off point on one of the Silk Roads across the forbidding and desolate desert. But with better routes being found to transport the silks and spices to Europe it fell on hard times and was eventually abandoned and left to the harsh sands and rocks of the desert. It still provides shelter to the occasional passing nomad whose fire can be seen within the crumbling walls of an outlying building....

...well that's what somebody told me once... or did I imagine it?

The fifth in my "Arabian Night" series it is loosely based on a Midjourney piece shown below in this post but really I have just used the basic architecture and placed it within the scene I had visualised earlier which is really focused on the sky. It is again based on a red/orange - green/blue colour complementary but kept fairly desaturated in line with how I am currently working.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Midjourney

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim - stage 4

 I finished off the sky and then painted the first colour pass on the background landscape. Looking at it in the afternoon light in my studio and I think the darks need to be darker but I can judge that better when I paint in the darks in the foreground...

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim - stage 3

Pretty much finished the sky and then corrected some perspective on the buildings before giving the landscape another wash of transparent desaturated blue/green ready for tomorrow's painting session.

New colour used: Naples Yellow-Reddish Extra (Old Holland)

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim - stage 2

 I looked at it this morning over my breakfast coffee and realised that it looked like it could be a desert area anywhere in the world so I added a damaged Islamic dome and got rid of the top bit on the tower as well. I then painted the first colour pass on the sky after giving most of the painting a wash of transparent desaturated blue/green first.

Colours used so far: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Cobalt Teal, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Zinc White and Warm White.

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim - stage 1

 On the edge of the Arabian Desert lies the fort of Qalat Qadim, ruins now but once an important point on one of the old Silk Routes.... well at least in my imagination. I have gone back to the panoramic sky of "The Empty Quarter" (now sold) but this time combining it with ruined architecture and the mysterious light of presumably a camp fire inside the ruins.

This is the fifth in my "Arabian Night" series, this being the initial tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a flat brush and rag.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Kasbah Layla

 The fourth in my "Arabian Night" series this one is set in the Atlas Mountains region of Morocco, so not actually Arabian...

An imaginary fortified Kasbah is set against a moonlit sky with an emphasis on the contrast between the green/blue sky and the red/orange buildings so based on the colour complementary. As usual I have a couple of windows with lights on... The architecture is based on the distinctive style of the region and the Atlas Mountains can be seen in the background at right.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

Kasbah Layla - stage 3

 Finished off the sky and background mountains and gave the buildings a wash of a mix of Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Phthalocyanine Blue and Alizarin Crimson. This will help me work out how I'm going to do the Kasbah, I am veering to the idea of it being variations of reds against the blue sky.

The Empty Quarter sold

 Pleased to report that "The Empty Quarter" has just sold to a UK buyer. 

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Kasbah Layla - stage 2

 First colour pass on the sky after giving most of the painting a transparent wash of a mix of Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin. 

Other colours used; Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Zinc White and Warm White.