Artists & Illustrators Magazine

I have a four page Masterclass feature in the current February 2020 issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine published in the UK. The editor emailed me just a few weeks ago to ask me if I could write this up as somebody else had let them down and as he knew I photographed all the stages of my paintings he figured that I would have a painting that would work for the article. 
I was going to focus it around telling a story in a picture but they chose to base it around the panoramic format being used.
The painting "The Exit To San Breta" was a commission for a Canadian collector who has commissioned many artists to illustrate the works of George RR Martin, this one was for a short story set in Arizona. 

Rig

I used the same paint mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin as the previous picture on "Rig". I first mixed up acrylic Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow Light for the ground and this time gave it a coat of Liquin when it had dried to see if that would prevent the paint lifting off when I am using turpentine to rub away highlights etc.
I was thinking of using my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet for this one but I decided I wanted to see how this looked first; in fact I will be using the brown/violet on the lemon backing on another painting about to be started.
I am kind of regretting having the oil rig there now and think it would have been better as just a sky and landscape, to which end I will be trying this out on the upcoming painting I have just mentioned.
The location is the vast landscape of Texas.
I think that I will be renaming this series "The Big Sky" as "Roadside Apocalypse" was going to be limiting me in terms of subject matter, now the theme is the American landscape itself.
31 1/2" x 12" Oil on canvas.

Instagram top nine posts

I went to the Topnine website and found out that these were my top nine Instagram posts with the most likes over the past year; all landscapes I note. Fifteen thousand plus likes is quite good I suppose.

Rig - stage 3

Work on "Rig" has been interrupted by the Christmas break but is actually nearly finished, just waiting for it to dry so that I can scan it. This was as far as I had got by Christmas Eve with a few more layers of glaze added since stage 2. Starting to regret having the oil rig in there and thinking it would have been better as just landscape and sky... to which end I have started another larger painting in the same panoramic format that will be just that - land and sky.

Rig - stage 2

Only managed to get in some tone into the sky due to distractions by my boiler breaking down just before the Christmas holiday. Luckily it seems to be fixed after a plumber being here all day.
I used the same mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin which I applied with a rag. Might get a bit done tomorrow morning before Christmas arrives!

Rig - stage 1

Carrying on from the last one I am using the same paint mix but over a more saturated lemon background this time. I mixed up acrylic Titanium White with more Cadmium Yellow Light in it and then gave it a coat of Liquin to see if that helps to prevent the background colour from lifting whenever I use any turpentine to rub paint away when drawing up etc. I used the usual mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin to "draw" it up and I will then use the same mix with a rag to put in some tone tomorrow. I did wonder about using the Burnt Sienna/Winsor Violet mix over the lemon background but felt that I needed to try this combination out first.
The location is the vast landscape of Texas which I am hoping to get across with this lone oil rig set against the flat horizon, the sky will hopefully make it all work, we'll get more of an idea tomorrow. I am actually thinking of renaming the series "The Big Sky" instead of "Roadside Apocalypse" as I think it's going to be limiting if I just stick to apocalyptic imagery!
Oil on canvas with acrylic ground 31" x 12 1/2".

Marabout

Another monochrome oil painting this time using a subdued blue/green over what is hard to see here but a base ground of pale lemon yellow. I first gave the whole canvas a coat of a mix of Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow Light acrylic as I thought there would be less chance of it lifting when I started to "draw" up the painting in oil afterwards - I use turpentine to wipe out mistakes and this would probably take off the background colour too particularly if it was an oil background.
I mixed up a decent amount of the blue/green, enough to last through the whole painting as it is difficult to remix the colour if you run out, the slightest difference in the mix shows surprisingly more than you would think. I used a mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and permanent Orange (to temper the saturation) thinned with Liquin, applied with rag for the sky and the footpath shadows.
A Marabout is a shrine to a Muslim Holy man, mostly in North Africa.
I was originally going to paint it in daylight but soon realised that a moonlit picture would suit the blue colouring.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".