Underworld

 

Finally getting back to painting after a three week lay off....

This is kind of a study for a larger upcoming figurative painting of Hecate Greek goddess of The Underworld. While waiting to get the reference shots of my model Naomi Wood yesterday I thought I would get on with a trial of how I might do the background in the meantime. I played around with Midjourney for a while and came up with the image below which I used as a guide. It was originally tempting to leave as it as a monochrome as it was looking OK but that wasn't the point of the painting (I can always paint another monochrome one later) and wanted to try and get across the idea of an Underworld landscape underneath the sky where no direct sunshine permeated, an airless place dimly lit and mysterious. I included a Classical temple in the distance to connect with the idea of a Greek landscape. Look out for the eyes...

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12"

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

Midjourney

 

Underworld - stage 3

 Painted in some colour into the sky and painted in the rest of the foreground trees. I stopped here as I need to look at all this over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee to see the way forward. It was tempting to leave it all monochrome but that wasn't the purpose of this painting and is meant to be kind of a study for the upcoming "Hecate" painting. The idea behind this is having a kind of daylight sky (although it is ambiguous and could be a night sky) to separate it from the trees and landscape below as though it is another world where daylight doesn't penetrate. This may or may not work...

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Manganese Blue Hue, Phthalocyanine Green, Emerald Green, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow, Pale Light Yellow and Zinc White.

Underworld - stage 2

 

Worked on strengthening the foreground trees today although not all finished yet. Tomorrow I paint in the other colours in the sky as this is not going to be a monochrome painting.

Colours used so far: Phthalocyanine Blue, Prussian Blue, Phthalocyanine Green and Permanent Orange.

Underworld - stage 1

 Finally getting into painting again after a three week lay off due to going to the USA for IX and then dealing with stuff like my tax accounts when I got back. 

I have noticed that the prizewinners in art competitions that have a Fantasy bias are always figurative works and never landscapes so I am moved to see if I can come up with something figurative next. To this end I have decided to paint a picture of Hecate, the Greek goddess of The Underworld and have my usual model Naomi coming over on Thursday for the photographic session for the figure of Hecate. In the meantime I have decided to get on with a small study of how I might approach the background...

This is the initial tonal underpainting which was first blocked in with a rag before I started to use brushes using a mix of Prussian Blue, Phthalocyanine Green and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

IX Gallery

 I have just uploaded 17 paintings for sale on my IX Gallery page, some of which were shown at the recent IX in Reading PA last month.

 https://ixgallery.com/artists/markharrison/

Light On The Citadel sold

 My slightly repainted "Light On The Citadel" sold immediately it was posted on Every Day Original on 28 October. So far every one that I have posted on Every Day Original has sold within minutes of being posted... so far.

This one was originally called "Storm Over The Citadel" but something bugged me about it, it was a bit flat with all the buildings the same muted colour and looked a bit boring. I was originally going to put a fire with smoke under The Citadel but decided in the end to paint in some more light hitting it instead to break up the virtual monochrome.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

IX

 I got back a week ago today from IX in Reading PA. The whole trip went pretty well including the boxes of paintings only taking two days to clear Customs and get delivered to Goggleworks. It was great to meet up with old friends and meet more new ones and the event was as ever a very friendly affair. I sold four paintings over the five days as well as a fifth one that was sold ahead and at the end of the show was shipped off to the buyer by Pat Wilshire.

I was even more surprised to find on my return home that the paintings had already been delivered that morning by FedEx so I was much relieved after expecting the usual battle with UK Customs to get them cleared.

The boxes arrive in the UK!