Isle Of Lost Souls

I fancied painting something simple after all the difficult perspectives in the last one so I chose a tonal landscape. It is based on an island I saw at Buscot Park in the Cotswalds UK but has the influence of the Isle of the Dead paintings of Arnold Bocklin and Ferdinand Keller although since I have finished it I detect some Maxfield Parrish in there as well. I wanted the light and colour to be dramatic with a strong a contrast as I could get away with and is a look that I will hopefully develop in some upcoming pictures. It is based on a yellow/green -  violet/purple complementary colour axis with a guest appearance of some pink/orange. Oil on MDF board 18 1/2" x 18 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Isle Of Lost Souls - stage 6

Painted a glaze of a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Dioxazine Purple on the sky and finished off most of the water and reflections. 

Isle Of Lost Souls - stage 5

Only had the morning to work on this today as the light in the studio faded in the afternoon (I don't like painting in artificial light, even with so-called "daylight" bulbs) so all I did was to paint a glaze of Ultramarine Violet over the sky and work on the water in the left half of the picture. Also received some bad news about a potentially lucrative deal with a hotel which fell through so that kind of knocked the stuffing out of me as well this afternoon.

Isle Of Lost Souls - stage 4

It's starting to look like how I imagined it at the outset, very moody! Still basing it around a yellow/green - violet complementary with just a touch of vibrant pink/orange; I want that sun to look so bright that you feel you need to squint your eyes to look at it.

Isle Of Lost Souls - stage 3

I painted a semi-transparent glaze of Manganese Violet and Lemon Yellow over most of the sky and painted in the darker areas such as the island trees and the background trees to get a bit nearer to the tonal values that I want for this picture. It's all about mood and colour.

Isle Of Lost Souls - stage 2

I have now got down the first layer of colour based on a yellow/green - violet/magenta complementary. I have widened the temple a bit since taking this photograph as it was looking too small. This painting will look much nearer to how I intend when I get the glazes on it, hopefully Monday.

Isle Of Lost Souls - stage 1

After the complications of the last painting I decided to do something simple and tonal. A setting sun reflected in a lake with water lilies in the foreground, an island lies in the middle of the water with a wall around it. Flanked by classical urns on pedestals steps lead up from the water to a classical temple higher up framed by cypress trees. The tonal underpainting has been put in with a rag and brush using a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and turpentine. I had to use a brush as the paint does not go down so well on MDF as it does on canvas (I fancied painting on MDF for a change). Obvious influences are the Isles of the Dead paintings by Bocklin and Keller.