Desert Daybreak - stage 1

While I finish "Valdez" I am getting on with this one as I have to wait for each glaze to dry before I can do the next one and working on two at once is more efficient use of time! As I have been using glazes recently I have gravitated towards the work of Maxfield Parrish who used them a lot which is how he achieved the luminous colour that his work is known for. So moving on from using a uniform monochrome across the picture this one will be a combination of a virtually monochrome foreground set against a luminous dawn sky, the title giving a nod to a famous Maxfield Parrish painting - actually he did paint a series of South West American desert pictures quite early on in his career when he went there for health reasons.
I used Lemon Yellow for the sky and a mix of Burnt Sienna, Winsor Violet and Ultramarine Violet thinned with Liquin for the landscape.
Oil on linen 20" x 16".

Valdez - stage 1

Actually more like stage three really, I've been forgetting to photograph it at the end of the day until today. The location is Valdez in Alaska with the wonderfully named Ammunition Island in the middle distance. There is actually  a yellow acrylic ground with a mix of Prussian Blue, Winsor Green and Permanent Orange over the top of it but as I want that green that you see in the Northern Lights to show though I am going to introduce some more saturated mixes of the aforementioned colours from tomorrow. As I am using glazes at the moment I have been looking at the work of Maxfield Parrish and might start to veer away from the desaturated colours towards much more saturated depending on the subject matter.
Oil on linen 20" x 16".

Art Renewal Center

My copy of the ARC's 14th International Salon catalogue/book arrived yesterday. I got three paintings accepted this year, all in the Imaginative Realism section. I think the book gets heavier every year...the three paintings were "Midnight Queen", "A Secret Garden" and "The Dark Citadel".
My goal like everybody else is to get one into the exhibition that travels to places like Barcelona but no luck so far. Frankly I don't think your work gets noticed otherwise as there is so much work in there and they tend to be reproduced so small that their impact is lost. I guess I'll enter some next time but not in Imaginative Realism, probably the Landscape category.

Vale

This is actually a colour trial for a larger painting coming up soon once I get the aurora painting finished that I have just started while I'm in the mood for trying it out. "Vale" is located at Kingley Vale in West Sussex UK.
I tried my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin this time over a ground of acrylic lemon yellow. The yellow gives it more of a warmth than just painting over white so I will probably use this combination for the large upcoming landscape, probably a desert scene.
This one is painted on a relatively coarse canvas which may be more suited to trying things with thicker paint on but that is for later after I have got all these monochromes out of my system. I think for transparent paint glazes a linen surface is better.
Oil on canvas 11 3/4" x 11 3/4".

Vale - stage 1

In preparation for a larger painting I am trying the colours I intend to use on this one located at Kingley Vale, West Sussex.
Over a lemon acrylic ground I applied with a rag a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin. I think these monochromes suit linen better than canvas as the grain of the canvas breaks up the colour too much. On the other hand this could be turned to an advantage if I want something more broken up in the future - maybe with thicker paint for example.
Oil on canvas 11 3/4" x 11 3/4''.

Bay

Currently trying out colours etc. "Bay" is trying out a Prussian Blue/Permanent Orange mix (with a small amount of Winsor Green) over a lemon yellow acrylic ground. It looked quite nice at the early stages when it was soft and subtle but I wanted it to be dark and highly contrasted so I carried on with a few more glazes to take it to finish. So these monochromes get nearer to duochromes (if such a term exists).
Oil on linen 16" x 12".

Bay - stage 1

Actually this is stage 2, I forgot to photograph stage 1! There was no drawing up at all with this one I just put it all in with a rag using a mix of Prussian Blue, Permanent Orange and just a touch of Winsor Green all thinned with Liquin. I didn't use much Winsor Green in this one as I wanted it to be more blue than the previous painting using much the same paint mix, "Rig".
I see "Bay" as high contrast and whilst it's tempting to leave it around here, it is more ordinary like this so to make it more interesting as a painting I'm going to take it further as I originally saw it in my mind.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".