Desert Daybreak

As I have pursued my current interest in glazes and transparent paint I have been gravitating towards the work of Maxfield Parrish who used them a lot which is how he achieved the luminous colour that his work is known for. I am now moving on from a uniform monochrome across the canvas to combining monochrome areas with areas of colour so "Desert Daybreak" (the title and colouring being a nod to Parrish) has a relatively monochrome landscape set against a luminous dawn sky. I graduated the foreground from a kind of violet to orange/brown towards the distance for two reasons; firstly it helps the sense of distance form the foreground to the background and secondly the orange/brown forms a complementary to the sky which strengthens the luminosity of the sky and it in turn warms up the sandstone butte and mesas. 
The colours used in the landscape were Burnt Sienna, Winsor Violet and Ultramarine Violet with some Permanent Sap Green mixed with the violet for the scrub bushes. The colours used in the sky were Lemon Yellow (for the ground), Manganese Blue Hue, Prussian Blue and Permanent Orange.
Oil on linen 20" x 16".
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.