The Road to Cy Malg (Martin Snee 2016)

So today I finally did something I’ve been threatening  to do for a while and that is paint one of the settings from my Book,  The Arena of Lost Souls. Cy Malg is the ancient ruined city that contains the Arena of the title and Luan, the protagonist (hell, let’s call him the hero!) sees it first in a dream. 

It was an interesting challenge. Usually my landscapes are painted from real life, whether that is on the spot or from photos and sketches. This time the image existed only in my mind. I first wrote a description of it about two years ago and with further writing and revising I’ve been back quite a few times. I didn’t draw or sketch it first, just went straight in with acrylic onto a blue canvas. There are only three colours (a blue, an orange and a red) plus white and I painted over the whole canvas and just let the image emerge.

I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Think I’ll try it as a book cover.