The Portal - stage 1

 This is another painting coming out of my recent trip around the National Parks in Southwest USA and is based on a tree I saw in Yosemite in a sequoia grove. Looking at it now I am just wondering if I need to put in a silhouetted figure in the light to give it the right sense of scale... needn't decide yet but probably...

This is the tonal underpainting stage which has had a wash of a desaturated mix of Phthalocyanine Blue and Permanent Orange over the basic underpainting using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Rock Of Souls

 This is the first painting after my tour of US National Parks in the South West and is the realisation of the original idea that I had while on the road; the incredible shapes and contours of the rocks I saw there suggested a living landscape of beings animal and human and kind of reflects the spiritual connection to the landscape that the indigenous people have out there. Although this trip was intended to provide material for paintings for my solo show next year at the Abend Gallery the first painting to come out of it is much nearer to a Fantasy painting and as such it will be shown at IX in Reading PA in October. The idea is predicated on people not seeing the eyes etc at first but I'm too close to it so I have no idea if this will be the case.

Oil on canvas 31" x 12"

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

Rock Of Souls - stage 5

 Still working on the rocks and still struggling with the colour and tone. The rocks need to be kind of dark for the mood I want but still need to introduce some variety of colour in them as well... maybe I should get the foreground in next and that will give me a better idea.

Rock Of Souls - stage 4

 

Second colour pass on the sky and then trying out colours etc on the landscape. Stopped here as it needs to be looked at in the morning over my breakfast coffee. My main concerns are how dark to make the rocks and how to introduce some variety of colour into them, notwithstanding that there will be some green bushes which will help a bit.

New colours used: Yellow Lake Deep, Cadmium Golden Yellow and Bright Pink.

Rock of Souls - stages 2 & 3

Stage 2

 Didn't get a chance to post anything yesterday. First of all I finished off the tonal underpainting and then left it as I needed to make a decision on whether to keep it monochrome or to paint it in colour. Over breakfast coffee this morning I decided to go for colour.... stage 3 is the first colour pass on the sky.

Colours used: Manganese Blue Hue, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Oil on canvas 31" x 12".

Stage 3

Rock Of Souls - stage 1

The first painting since I got back from my tour of US National Parks is under way. "Rock Of Souls" is heavily influenced by the rock formations I saw but I'm stopping here halfway through the tonal underpainting as I need to make decisions about how to proceed including whether I keep it monochrome for instance.... the qualities of the underpainting have something of what I'm looking for so I'm thinking about how best to retain them but still going for a full colour painting...

This is the tonal underpainting stage using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with various brushes.

Oil on canvas 32" x 12".

Lonely Street sold

 I have just returned from a long tour of the National Parks in the South West of the USA and now that the jet lag is receding will begin to process what I saw and photographed and see how/if I am going to incorporate it into my new work. I already have one idea which is related to my work to take to IX in October.... as to how I apply it to my Fine Art work is more nebulous at the moment.

The good news is that while I was away "Lonely Street" sold to a buyer in the USA via Abend Gallery in Denver CO. "Lonely Street" is a painting from my "The Sleeping City" series most of which has a Edward Hopper in Gotham City feel to them, this one has a more surreal feel to it, a bit of a Hopper/Magritte mash up as you will....

Oil on linen 16" x 12".