Oil paint on wood - trompe l' oeil

These two previous works measuring 30x40 cms each are made in oil paint on a wood surface prepared with layers of sanded gesso. They prefigure the work I am doing at the moment based on carefully prepared paper and card photomontage/collages that I then observe directly as real still-life 'objects' in the changing natural light from a window on the right hand side.  

current work in progress similar to above

 ......and below is a collage, fig 1 and the various stages of drawing, fig 2 laying a ground of acrylic colours and tones Fig 3 and 4  and then building up layers of oil paint in chromatic neutral tones by mixing complementary colours fig 5 and 6. these works remain unfinished and I am interested in keeping the paint appearing fresh and spontaneous so it still looks like paint and the marks can work as abstracted painted positive/negative spaces/shapes on close inspection. 

fig 1

fig 2

Fig 3

fig 4

fig 5

fig 6 

Below is a triptych I made yesterday out of torn paper, photomontage and collage alluding to classical forms of architecture and human gestures and exploring the picture and the frame in relation to each other. I hope to be able to work from these in oil on wood when I get back from Italy - we leave tomorrow morning for Lake Garda.

Triptych, collage/photomontage  - work in progress

At Easter we visited Naples and Pompeii.  I have borrowed some of the compositional formats, scales and proportions from the trompe l' oeil of walls, columns, dado rails, friezes, entablatures, doors, windows, and framed pictures painted onto the real walls of Roman villas -  walls imitating walls in both real an imaginary spaces.....

    

Recontruction of wall paintings, Ixion Room, House of the Vetti

Wall paintings, Ixion Room, House of the Vetti, Pompeii, ca. 62-68 AD