Artist in residence, Tresco. Isles of Scilly. February 2018. Part 2 – new artworks

Well it has been 2 months now since the Tresco artist in residence and on the 1st May Aaron and I will be continuing the artist in residence cycle tour. Since February I have been working on  new series of paintings from the cycle tour and from Tresco in a way the seascapes re  combination of both experiences….

The weather was fab, clear skies at night and wonderful sunrise ech morning….just as well with all the work I had to do it was terrific to have the sunrise to watch……being up at round 5 m to start work, going out to watch the sunrise with coffee was  nice break…..

So once back from Tresco I started working on  series of sunrise paintings.  I was up before dawn each day  popping outside to star gaze……I did not have a telescope but that did not stop me from picking out constellations, testing myself on finding favorite objects, remembering the names of stars, finding open star clusters visible to the naked eye and spotting what planets could also be seen with the naked eye……and I wanted to put those experiences into the paintings. Interestingly  before and after dawn on my birthday….all 8 planets were in the sky……though Mercury and Venus were to close to the sun to view they were there. Mars, Saturn and Jupiter could be seen with the naked eye well before dawn stretching away and to the right of the sun. Neptune was to the left of the sun…..but you would need a telescope or powerful Binoculars to see it, and the same for Uranus which rose away to the left of Sol, just as Jupiter set. So I did the following sunrise paintings with this experience in mind….

Dawn looking towards the Eastern Isles – Sol, Mercury & Venus. oil on canvas 38×44 inches

Dawn looking towards the Eastern Isles – Sol, Mercury & Venus No.2

Sol

Solar System

This painting has all eight planets of the solar system along with the moon painted, but hidden in the glare of the sun and placed s accurately as I could, and information about the positions of the planets and distance from Earth is included on the back of the canvas.