Waiting

This is another of my usual underpainting taken to finish series painted as a monochrome using transparent glazes in this case a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin. The idea for this one was to work within a narrow range of midtones with no real highlights and no very dark values either, the whole thing being made up of a series of glazes. I like the quality of light that they have which really comes from the white of the canvas showing through the transparent paint layers but is very out of step with the current Look du Jour that is all about thick loose paint and mark making... neither which are present here!
I have no idea if there is any mileage in me doing this figurative work but I needed to try it out; I have other things to try out in this area before I go back to "proper" painting! 
Oil on linen 10" x 12".

Marabout - stage 2

Painted in some tonal underpainting with a rag and brush using the previous mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin. Have decided to do it as a moonlit picture as the blue lends itself very well to Moonlight.

Marabout 1

I will post up the finished "Waiting" tomorrow. This one is another kind of oil monochrome but using a muted blue/green over a light yellow ground. First I gave the canvas a coat of Titanium White/Cadmium Yellow Light acrylic as I didn't want it to rub off at the "drawing" stage when I use turpentine to erase errant lines etc. I let that dry overnight and then "drew" it up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and Permanent Orange (to temper the saturation) thinned with Liquin. I am leaving this to dry overnight for the morning session when I will put in some more tone with a rag using the same blue/green paint mixture thinned with Liquin.
A Marabout is a shrine to a Muslim holy man, mainly in North Africa.

Boboli

The last two monochromes based around my underpainting mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet are now finished, the other one, "Waiting" will be posted tomorrow. These monochromes are completely out of step with what is the current Look du Jour of thick paint loosely applied but I need to get to the end of these trial paintings to see if anything good comes out of them. All these monochromes are layers of glazes producing no mark making, another current obsession that I seem to be ignoring. The thing is I like the quality of light that they have and just want to see where they go. They are influenced by the black and white photography from the early years of the last century, photographers like Steichen who worked on the print to such an extent that they are half painting-half photograph. I am realising that only certain situations can be painted this way so I can see the limitations of what I can produce; I am changing the colours I am using after these and eventually will probably try using thicker paint too as the photographic quality they have worries me as much as I like them.
"Boboli" refers to the Boboli Gardens that overlook Florence where this picture is located but referring back to one of my mantras from last year "It's The Painting Not The Place", I am much more concerned with the look of the picture and not looking to merely reproduce a well-known view.
20" x 16" oil on linen. 

Boboli - stage 2

Although I call this stage 2 it is actually a couple of days along the line but it isn't really worth posting daily updates as there doesn't appear to be much changing due to the paint being applied in thin glazes. The same goes for "Waiting" that is nearly finished but just needs a few areas to have a final glaze before signing off.
After these I am changing the colour palette to blues and have other plans to try different surfaces to work on before I get to the end of these transparent monochromes and move on to thicker more opaque paint.

Boboli - stage 1

This is the other monochrome that I am working on in conjunction with "Waiting". Both are using the same paint mix, both are hopefully going to look pretty moody and subdued. I have plans for the sky on this one but you will see what I'm aiming for on the next stage.
All these monochromes are influenced by the black and white photography from the early years of the last century when the photographers worked on the print to such an extent that they are really half painted. Although I was aiming for something different I am following this diversion of more photographic painting for a while longer to see if it bears fruit before getting on with my original intentions!
Boboli refers to the Boboli Gardens above Florence where this painting is located.
A mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin applied with a flat brush and a small bristle brush.

Waiting - stage 3

I didn't bother posting the first two stages! These recent monochrome paintings are all made up of layers of glazes and consequently I have to wait until the previous glaze is dry before painting the next. This slows down the process so I have decided to paint two at the same time so while one is drying I can get on with the other and vice versa. This painting is one of them the other is a landscape called "Boboli" which will be in the next post.
As I have already mentioned these monochromes are not what I was looking for but I like the feel of them so I'm going to see what happens in a few more before changing colours and technique etc. Although they look too photographic they have a certain quality that I like so I think it's worth seeing where they can be taken. I was actually looking for something obviously "painted" with thicker paint, textures etc but let's see what comes out of these before I move on.
This is another underpainting worked up to finish using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin applied with a rag and brush.
Oil on linen 12" x 8".