Crossing

I wanted to get across the loneliness and isolation of a railroad crossing in New Mexico and decided on a dusk scene with the lightest part of the sky visually at the end of the railway tracks as they near the horizon. Although it is dusk I didn't want it to be too dark so I proceeded quite cautiously using glazes mainly of Ultramarine Violet on the landscape until I reached the right tonality for the sense of distance to work. I based the composition around The Rule of Thirds wanting a quite strong and dynamic design using the diagonals of the railway tracks etc but tempered by a soft and melancholy light. It is based around a yellow/violet colour complementary, the colours I used can be found in earlier posts of the painting on this blog.
I think I will develop this theme of signs of man on the landscape kind of left abandoned amidst these vast landscapes of the South West. I am now learning to slow down my bull in a china shop way of starting another painting immediately and am discovering that if I hold off for a day or two it gives the idea a chance to be examined in my head and refined or abandoned etc. It hopefully minimises the chance of painting a dud because it hadn't been thought through properly earlier on.
Oil on linen 30" x 20".
There is a step-by-step progress though this painting in previous posts on this blog.