Navajo

Another one where I'm working up the underpainting to finish instead of painting opaque colour over it. This is the first one where I have used no opaque colour at all, the whole painting being layers of glazes of transparent colour, my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush. Although my original intention for these monochromes was soft but textured with thicker brushwork I discovered that the best way to get the most out of this colour was to paint in thin glazes which has resulted in something much more photographic. I like the quality of light which I presume comes from the white of the canvas showing through the transparent layers giving it a slight glow so I will do a few more of these to see where they can go before getting back to my original intention of thicker paint etc!
Because you have to wait for each layer to dry before applying the next and consequently each painting taking longer to finish than normal I have decided to paint two at the same time so I can use my time more efficiently.
Monument Valley lies within the Navajo Nation Reservation, "Navajo" is another Roadside Apocalypse painting... sort of, I might expand this series into more of a Roadside America kind of thing but hoping to avoid going too Americana.
20" x 16" Oil on linen.