Luna - stage 1

Tonal underpainting for "Luna", a small painting probably going to IX in October. This was going to be mainly a sky painting, then I introduced a figure and decided to do it as a nocturne with the Moon and then realised the tondo format suggested the Moon so decided this morning over breakfast to paint the clouds in the shapes of the dark areas of the Moon itself to give it an extra dimension. The figure will be more indistinct than it appears here and at the moment I am planning to paint it in Atkinson Grimshaw colours, kinds of greens and oranges... although I can always change my mind and go for blues.
This stage was first "drawn" up with a small synthetic brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then the tones were put in with a rag using the same paint mix.
Oil on canvas 12" diameter.

Draco Niger Grandis prints

I will be bringing a small number (7) of prints of Draco Niger Grandis that I recently found in my studio to IX in October. I painted it in 1998 during my "Gold" period when I was using acrylics with gold leaf, gold paint and bronze powders. The artwork was sold long ago but I have these prints for sale at the show, the image area is 16" x 11 1/2".

Main Street Apocalypse

This started out as a commission wherein the buyer asked me to push the Apocalypse aspect of my current series of Roadside Apocalypse pictures to something more dystopian.
I was thinking of a classic American Main Street location for my next painting anyway so I decided to incorporate that in this commission. The setting is a kind of Mad Max post apocalypse America where the survivors of whatever has happened are eking out an existence in the ruins of their town using whatever technology that still works but kind of doomed really as once the tech stops working and/or the feeble power available cuts out they are left with nothing. They have some feeble power for some rudimentary lighting, even a few neon signs are still sputtering away in the late afternoon light. A lead runs from the car to the lamp post with it's chaotic jumble of cables and wires, maybe they have managed to use the car engine as a generator...what happens when there is no more petrol?
For this picture I remembered the amazing chaotic electric cabling that I saw in Indian cities and thought it would be ideal to use here as an example of adaption to circumstance. 
It is based around a red/orange - green blue colour complementary and have managed to paint the whole picture just using those colours apart from a few dashes of pink for the neon.
I will be showing this painting at the forthcoming IX in Reading PA next month.
30" x 20" oil on linen.
There is a step-by-step progress through this paint in previous posts on this blog.

Main Street Apocalypse - stage 8

OK sorry about lack of progress on this but I was in Sicily for five days and must admit when I got back it took me a whole day to to get my brain working again and make a fitful start on finishing this painting! 
To ease my way back I decided to work on the road which has actually helped as I had lost focus on this picture as originally I really wanted to finish it before I went away but realised that I would mess it up if I hurried it.
I will need tomorrow to finish this area before making a start on the lamp post and cables but at least I'm back in work mode!

Main Street Apocalypse - stage 7

Right, that's as much as I can get done before going to Sicily tomorrow for five days. I have about two day's worth of work left on it for when I get back. Didn't get as much done today as I hoped due to being distracted by preparations for the trip.
Hoping to walk along the crater rim of Etna...

Main Street Apocalypse - stage 6

I don't post an update every day now as although I work on it every day there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between them when you look at them on the blog. In fact it could be argued that it is often the case that the first colour pass really establishes at an early stage how the final painting will look.
I have toned down the foreground car a bit now in preparation for tomorrow's session when I hope to finish it - it's been toned down a bit as I want the background storm cloud to be the lightest part of the picture and don't want two areas vying for attention on first glance.
I needed the fascias of the buildings to be in shadow as it helps to show the feeble lights and the occasional working neon against the relative darkness.

Main Street Apocalypse - stage 5

I spent today working on the main building on the right using the same colours  as the sky mixes pretty much apart from a bit of Cadmium Yellow Light in the windows where there are lights on. Hoping to finish the painting before I go to Sicily for five days on Monday.