John Bellany style reference and prompts

An expressionist painted surface builds forms from broken, visibly worked patches of teal blue, yellow ochre, burnt orange, chalky cream and charcoal. Elongated vertical shapes carry a tense stillness while surrounding planes tilt, overlap and dissolve into short rough strokes. Dark sketchlike lines appear intermittently rather than enclosing every edge; pale areas are scraped or brushed thin so underlying color remains active. Large color contrasts supply depth more than conventional perspective or smooth shading. Diffuse light lifts a few cream and yellow planes out of the cool blue field, with little hard cast shadow. Dense activity near the lower margin gives way to broad, weathered color above. The visual effect is uneasy and poetic, its emotional force coming from fractured surfaces and unequal scales.

A square expressionist painting places two solemn men before a loosely assembled coastal town and harbor. The nearer man stands on the right in a white shirt, narrow dark tie, charcoal vest and dark trousers. His elongated yellow-ochre face has large pale eyes rimmed with brown, a sharp nose and a fixed forward gaze. Slightly behind him at the center stands a thinner man in a dark jacket, his smaller face similarly long and watchful. Their upright bodies form two still vertical marks against a landscape of unstable color. Across the left half, tiny dark figures gather along a pale wall and sloping ground; a bright yellow boat shape rises from the lower-left corner amid blue and rust-colored strokes. Near the center, a narrow doorway and steps lead toward a white building on the distant rise. A thin chimney releases dark smoke into the cool blue sky, while a pale round glow hangs at the upper left. The shoreline, buildings and ground are fragmented into rough patches of teal, ochre, burnt orange, gray and cream. Brush marks remain visible and often cross the edges of objects, so the setting feels as restless as the men are rigid. Light is diffuse, with the pale building and men's faces carrying the highest values; yellow highlights vibrate against the surrounding blue, without a single hard cast shadow. The overall composition joins a crowded, tilted landscape to two frontal figures, creating an uneasy balance of weathered color and direct human stillness.