New paintings and regular art updates.
A post by @thewaitingroomgallery of my tryptich of Jupiter. I was there featured artist this week. The gallery is situated in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent and is linked with the British Rail Longport Train station which they are gradually restoring. They have won awards for their community work there.
I have a few paintings and glass jewellery on display there at the moment. There is lots of work by other artists there too.
Every so often Jupiter and Saturn appear close to each other in the sky. That’s because Jupiter, which is the closer of the two to the Sun, goes round the Sun about twice as fast as Saturn. This month they will be in grand conjunction on the 14th of December 2020. They will be within about 1° of arc of each other. Jupiters four galilean moons (the four that Galileo discovered through his teliscope) will be visible too. The Moon will not be visible. So if you look South West on the night of the 14th you might just see the conjunction if the sky is clear. This is one of the best since 1262? Enjoy. For details have a look at websites like Spaceweather.com
Painting I did of the gaseous swirls of one of Jupiter’s polar regions. The photos were taken by NASAs Juno probe. I was amazed at the colours and patterns on that fantastic world and had to have a go..
It’s a large acrylic on canvas. I think I painted it two years ago and it was included in an exhibition called ‘blue’ at Spode Studios, Eleanora Street, Stoke-upon-Trent, which is one of the six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
A painting of Jupiter I did about seven years ago. My friend had a craft centre and this was for sale at her shop. It went to a good home. I always thought the pattern I painted looked a bit like knitting!
His came up on my Facebook memories. I have done so many paintings that I often forget what I have done! This was a large acrylic on canvas. I like the way it appears to be floating in the window. X
Digital sketch…
Years ago I had the pleasure of using a low powered telescope. I managed to find Juiter and then further away in the darkness was Saturn. It was amazing, the Rings were tipped up so they were much more visible than when they are in the a more horizontal plain. It was tiny, so small, but I could see it wavering slightly in the night air. I think Galileo thought it looked like it had ears?
To see planets with your own eyes, however small they appear is wonderful. The time it takes for the light to get to us means you scan look into the past. So it’s almost like time travel too!
If you ever get the chance, look up and see the sky….
Would you buy a painting of one of the poles of Jupiter? I’ve done a few paintings os astronomical objects. This is from a photo from the Juno probe a few years ago. I’m thinking if doing a ainting of Pluto’s heart. But although I love it I wonder if anyone out there is actually interested. Maybe I’m too interested in tech. I can’t help it though.
It’s not easy to hand paint these images, it takes ages to blend the colours and build them up. Then you have to make sure it’s accurate, although I don’t measure everything exactly. I can’t compete with photography but I do try my best. Anyway this is a large acrylic on canvas and it is for sale.
Ten years ago, and before that, I was painting Jupiter. I love the planet, though its atmosphere is hellishly difficult to paint, swirls that meld into one another, colours that blend and merge.
I think I said it was like knitting the painting, because I built it up band by band.
Now I want to do more in the astronomical area. I’m thinking of painting on perspex if I can get the right effects. I woukd do something like the ‘pillars of creation’ dusty nebula. I am thinking of having different layers. How I would display it, and how accurate it would be? I don’t know-yet!
Decided this is finished, not going to overwork it. I added a moon and its shadow. I wanted to keep the colours fresh and interesting. I liked the idea of tipping it at an angle. We tend to have images of planets on a horizontal plane because that is the way the solar system rotates ‘on the plane of the ecliptic’, but if you were on an asteroid skimming past you wouldn’t necessarily be travelling in the same plane as the planets.
I’m trying to paint the Great red spot of Jupiter and I’m using the photo on the right as a basis of it. The painting is more angled than straight on and so the red spot has a bit of curvature to it, as if the view point is down and to the right of the original photo….. But oh! Those waves and swirls, so hard to render!
Might add a moon or its shadow, thinking about it. Having a rest, still feel ill! Grr….
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I do like drawing and painting planets
This was drawn in ArtRage oils. I used the dry brush and metallic setting for it except for the moon where I turned the metallic option off. You can’t paint smoothly with it but you can get an impression of what you want to depict. The largest brush size is the size of the moons shadow, so to build up the background you have to shade backwards and forwards to cover the whole picture. This is glorified finger painting!
You will notice the top left corner is lighter than the bottom right. That is because the app is set up to have graduated shading across the picture. There is some difficulty drawing accurately on a screen with your finger, especially when the surface is apparently fluid. The result is the moon in the bottom right corner does not look quite right. The image is imagined, not taken from a photo. The moon is not identifiable but would be one of the four seen by Galileo. (the four biggest), (no I can’t remember their names!)
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Mallaband-Brown