Midgard

Midgard is the realm of Man in Norse mythology which JRR Tolkein called Middle Earth in his books, the towering mountains in the distance could be Asgard, realm of the Gods. The painting is based on the landscape of the Lofoten Islands in Norway which I thought would be appropriate to the Norse mythology theme and has influences of Albert Bierstadt, the Hudson River School and Eugen Bracht running through the picture. This is the first what I would call Fantasy Landscape I have painted in 15 years and is based around a yellow/violet complementary colour axis in which I have tried to give it a strong composition by playing with values and keeping the lightest area of the painting in the top right corner. There is a step-by-step progress through the painting on preceding posts of this blog and is another picture that I will consider taking to Illuxcon in September. 39 1/2" x 15 3/4" oil on canvas.

Midgard - stage 7

I have finished the foreground slopes and the water and made a start on the foreground beach so hopefully I will finish this tomorrow. I am glad I kept the lightest part of the picture just in the top right corner as this will draw the eye firstly to the landscape and then to the foreground Viking boat which I didn't want to dominate the painting.

Three paintings sold by Asgard Arts

From Cleopatra's Needle

I am happy to report that three paintings were sold yesterday by Asgard Arts to a buyer in Haslemere, UK. They were "From Cleopatra's Needle", "Blackfriars Morning" and "Low Tide, Bankside" all 18 1/2" x 18 1/2" oil on board.

Blackfriars Morning

Low Tide, Bankside Pier

Midgard - stage 6

I have managed to get some work done on the foreground slopes but now have to go to London to drop off some paintings to a gallery so I will not get any more painting done on this until tomorrow.

Midgard - stage 5

Well I think I have finished the mountains in the back and middlegrounds, I have made a start on the fog bank and done a little bit of work on the foreground mountain slope.

Midgard - stage 4

This is strange, yesterday's post of Midgard 3 seems to have disappeared. Oh well here is stage 4 in which I have refined yesterday's work on the sky and have made large inroads into working on the line of peaks in the middle distance. The distant mountain peaks could be interpreted as Asgard, realm of the Gods, separated from Midgard, the realm of Man in the foreground by ranges of increasingly inaccessible mountains. Blimey, this is the first fantasy landscape of mountains that I have painted in something like 15 years!

Midgard - stage 2

I have roughly put in some colour over the whole painting to give me an idea as to where it is going. I am basing it on a yellow/violet complementary colour axis with the lightest part of the picture in the sky at top right as I want to have a strong design structure to it; I am now thinking that I may perhaps need something in the bottom left corner area to balance with the top right. The curl of mist was always planned to be there to give some movement to the picture and to echo the shape of the boat which incidentally I have lengthened a bit. The Eugen Bracht influence should now be coming apparent...