Ice Planet

 I liked how the light hit the background mountains in an earlier painting "Out In The Cold" and wanted to base a painting around it. After trying out various compositions of an Islamic Summer Palace in the mountains of Central Asia I settled on a Star Wars related piece loosely set on the ice planet Hoth. Kept the colours fairly subtle based around a yellow/violet complementary with a bit of blue at the top to add a bit more variety of colour.

I have painted this early for my slot next month on Every Day Original as I will be away from the studio for the next three weeks.

Oil on linen 12" x 16".

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

Ice Planet - stage 5

 It is nearly finished, just need to finish the foreground and maybe a few tweaks on the buildings. I hope to finish it tomorrow and scan and post on Every Day Original before I leave for the USA on Monday. Good to stop here as I need to have a think about the foreground colours over my breakfast coffee.

Ice Planet - stage 4

 Work is s bit slow on this one as I have quite a lot of things to do as I prepare to go to the USA next week so I didn't get as much done as I wanted on the buildings. I stopped here so that I can have a good look at it with a clear head over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee. I need to decide how dark to make them for instance and I'm too distracted today to make a good decision. It doesn't matter if I don't finish it before I go as I will have time to finish it when I get back and will be easily in time to post it up on Every Day Original.

Ice Planet - stage 3

 Have been away from the studio for a while so good to be back and have got on with the background mountain today. I stopped here so that I can look at it again tomorrow over my breakfast coffee and tweak if necessary before I go on to the buildings.

New colours used: Kings Blue Light, Lavender and Naples Yellow Reddish Extra.

Ice Planet - stage 2

 I finished the brown underpainting and gave it a desaturated violet/blue wash over most of it later on - violet because the painting is based on a yellow/violet colour complementary.

Colours used so far: Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna and Permanent Orange.

Home Land

A Lonesome Road

 My solo show "Home Land" at the Abend Gallery, Denver CO finished a couple of weeks ago and have been informed that four have sold so far which is disappointing but the gallery is not surprised in the current uncertain economic times particularly in the USA.

They were: "A Lonesome Road", "Home And Dry", "Last Light" and "The Outsider".

Home And Dry

Last Light

The Outsider

 

 

Ice Planet - stage 1

 I liked how the light hit the background mountain in an earlier painting "Out In The Cold" and wanted to try it again in a different way. After sketching out various ideas of Islamic summer palaces high in the mountains set against the light hitting a mountain in the background I settled this morning on setting it loosely on the planet Hoth in the Star Wars films. This is two thirds through the initial tonal underpainting which I hope to finish tomorrow and try and get the blue wash over it later in the day as it could well be dry by four in the afternoon in this sunny weather.

This is being painted early for my slot on Every Day Original next month as I will be away from the studio for three weeks 19 May to 10 June in Pennsylvania painting on an historic farm near Amish country as an Artist In Residence.

Oil on linen 12" x 16".

Heliotropolis

 This started out as a different idea but morphed into this, a fusion of my love of Orientalism with Fantasy/Science Fiction. The foreground references my collection of vintage Orientalist postcards of the 1920s/30s and the paintings of Hermann Corrodi and the background is a futuristic city with architecture referencing Ancient Egypt on a hot late evening/dusk. Maybe this is the Heliopolis district of Cairo sometime in the future....

The painting took a bit longer because I changed my mind about the colours and lighting from more of an evening painting with blues and violets and silhouetted buildings to an earlier time in the late afternoon with all the buildings picking up more of the dying light - this meant basically that I had to put a lot more detail into the buildings than originally planned.

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

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

Heliotropolis - stage 9

 Managed to paint in both sides of foreground and just need to finish off the date palms and then paint in the water and reflections tomorrow when I hope to finish it. I also looked at it last night and decided to break up the line of light on the shoreline of the city as it is too early in the evening for that burst of light to happen because there is too much light left in the sky at that time. This is a legacy of how I was originally going to paint it when I planned for it to be later in the evening and the sky would be full of blues and darker but of course I changed my mind but still clung on to the idea of the strip of lights until last night.... it's still there a bit...

Heliotropolis - stage 8

 Roughed in some colour into the water to give me an idea of what colours and tone to use on the foreground. Made a start on the foreground at right, more date palms to go in next and finish the ones already there before I move over to the left foreground, I'm leaving the water until last.

Heliotropolis - stage 7

 Still painting the city tentatively but have most of the right hand side finished so tomorrow I should be able to get the city finished including all the lights running along the shoreline. Then onto the foreground and water...

Heliotropolis - stage 6

 Haven't got much done on this until today due to distractions like the great weather.. and also a lot of dithering about what colours to use for the city. I stopped here today as I now need to work out what colours to use on the city at right which is theoretically more in shadow. Do I change the sky colour behind it? All will hopefully be resolved over tomorrow's breakfast coffee...

Heliotropolis - stage 5

 It's all about the lighting at the moment as I struggle a bit with colours to make the idea work of a hot early evening/dusk with light and colour still in the sky but dark enough for all the bright lights of the city to be there too. I stopped here as I want to have a look with fresh eyes at the colours I'm using in the buildings, I feel something needs to be slightly different - hopefully mulling it over tomorrow's breakfast coffee will do the trick. The sky is finished... maybe.

New colours used: Brilliant Pink and Yellow Lake Deep. 

Heliotropolis - stage 4

 First colour pass on the sky and background hills. The finish will be richer in colour with some glazing. I chose a sky colour like my collection of vintage Orientalist postcards which seems more appropriate as I go along and will be a nice counterpoint to having the Sci Fi city in it.

Colours used so far: Ultramarine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Lavender, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow Reddish Extra, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Heliotropolis - stage 3

 Tonal underpainting now finished. Late last night I was looking at it before going to bed and realised that the way the painting looked at that time suggested going for a more Orientalist colouring than the one that I had originally intended. In the morning over coffee I looked at Orientalist painters like Hermann Corrodi and even Orientalist postcards from that period in my collection and decided on a warmer, hotter even, late sunset/dusk light based around yellows, oranges, pinks and violets. You will see this start to take effect tomorrow when I start to paint the sky...

Heliotropolis - stage 2

 Oooppsss... just noticed I misspelt the title in the last post...

 Spending longer than normal on this tonal underpainting as all the architecture has to be right from the outset otherwise it looks.... wrong and difficult to fix later on. I was originally going to have the city stretching across the canvas but I decided to make it look like it's following the curve in the river away from us - good 'ol breakfast coffee...

About two thirds of the way to finishing the tonal underpainting.

Heliopolis - stage 1

 

To misquote Rolf Harris you can't see what it is yet.... I have gone ahead and done a partial tonal underpainting of the foreground as I need to establish that first before I begin to compose the background which will be a futuristic city in the style of Ancient Egyptian architecture so that the point of the painting is a fusion of my interest in Orientalism which is the foreground combined with a Fantasy/Sci Fi background. I am going to set it at late evening with the last light in the sky on the buildings and all the city lights on and probably a spaceship going across the sky.... I am painting this to take to IX later in the year unless a buyer comes along beforehand...

Colours used so far: Dioxazine Purple and Burnt Sienna.

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

The Vampire Of Rialto

 Another in my "Vampires Of Venice" series this one has been painted for my upcoming slot on 23 April on Every Day Original. This one is related to the previous vampire (Nosferatu) painting in that I have come closer to the vampire than I normally do with this one the closest so far. I have distorted the angles on the background to have a bit of the feel of the early Dr Caligari and Nosferatu movies from the 1920s. If you have ever walked around Venice at night you might be able to entertain the possibility of a vampire or two lurking in the shadows of the dimly lit alleyways and campos of this mysterious city....

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

The Vampire Of Rialto - stage 2

 First colour pass on the sky, buildings at left and right and part of the bridge plus I added a gondola and a few poles at the bottom to add interest to that area. Might have a couple of poles nearer...

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow and Warm White.

The Vampire Of San Marco sold

 "The Vampire Of San Marco" has just sold to friend that has a number of moonlight paintings of mine already although this one has a definitely more sinister air to it than the others! I must ask him if he's been to Venice...

This is good news on another level too in that this is the first sale I've made since my near sellout at IX last October, strange how things can be so up and down in this business!

Oil on linen 22" x 16".