Tierra Grande

There were at least four of these signs on a road in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico, I presume it is the name of a nearby ranch? This is of course another in my The Big Sky series of paintings, this one again focusing on signs of Man's intervention in a vast natural landscape, a theme I'm warming to. The landscape is principally sagebrush which has quite a specific colour to it which I tried to get across in this picture... which I am not sure if I managed to get..... I'm not sure about this one, probably best to look at it in a couple of weeks time to reassess.

I think I have enough of these for the moment and am feeling the need to have a period of experimentation again, this time in using thicker paint. Although I am comfortable with what I have been doing I have a niggling thought that to be taken seriously in "Fine Art" the Look Du Jour is thick slightly abstracted paint and although I feel an artist has to be true to themselves in how they paint maybe it is worth trying in case it moves the work forward in a genuine way that is still natural to how I go about things... we'll see.

Oil on linen 30" x 20".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Tierra Grande - stage 6

Painted in the landscape in shadow and quickly roughed the sky shadow colour into the road so that it is dry and ready to work on tomorrow. Once the road is finished I just have the ranch sign and the telegraph poles to put in and it's finished. For this reason I will post no more updates until it's finished when I will post the scan.

Tierra Grande - stage 5

Pretty much finished the sky and am now working on the landscape which is mainly in shadow apart from the hills in the distance at right. Being a bit tentative at the moment as I am not sure how dark to make it so just putting in some colour so that I have a better idea tomorrow as to how to proceed. Colours used: Permanent Sap Green, Chrome Green Deep, Emerald Green, Ultramarine Violet, Manganese Violet, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Burnt Sienna, Naples Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Warm White and Zinc White.

Tierra Grande - stage 4

Pretty much finished the sky barring a few tweaks tomorrow. Made a start on the sunlit distant landscape at right and darkened the tone of the rest of the landscape that will be in shadow. Need to have a think about what colours to use tomorrow morning, I'm keen to try and get the colours of the sagebrush right but need to consider the best way of achieving it.

Tierra Grande - stage 3

First colour pass on the sky, deciding this morning over my breakfast coffee to just keep the yellow in the light parts of the clouds (not too apparent yet).  Colours used: Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow and Zinc White.

Tierra Grande - stage 2

Finished the tonal underpainting today using the same paint mix as yesterday and applied with a rag. Tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee time is when final decisions are made on the colours I am going to use...

Tierra Grande - stage 1

There were at least four of these signs on a road in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico, I presume it is the name of a ranch. This is of course another in my series The Big Sky and is continuing with my current theme of signs of man's intervention within vast natural landscapes. I quite like the framing device of the sign and am tempted to put something inside that rectangle if I think of something suitable. The landscape is principally sagebrush and hope to get that nice colour that it has across in the painting. At the moment I am thinking of using a lot of dusty yellows but don't need to make my mind up yet until the tonal underpainting for the dramatic sky has gone in.
This is the first part of the tonal underpainting in which it was first "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet (Dioxazine) thinned with Liquin and then some tone was put in with a rag using the same paint mix when the under drawing was dry in the afternoon.
Oil on linen 30" x 20".

Pump

Another painting in my The Big Sky series again focusing on signs of human intervention in vast lonely landscapes this one revisiting a subject I painted earlier ("Rig"), a lonely oil pump in a vast flat Texan landscape. Maybe I should have titled this one "Run For Your Life!" as I have painted a threatening sky fast approaching, possibly not long before the formation of a Tornado.
I enjoyed painting the sky so I might well do another stormy sky for the next one, we'll see. 
It was important to get the light right for the landscape, I wanted it in shadow but still backlit from behind us where some sun is hitting some white clouds. It was important to make sure that the lightest part of the picture remained the sky behind the clouds at the top and every other tone ran from that. I based the painting around a yellow/violet colour complementary and used The Rule Of Thirds for the basic composition.
Oil on linen 30" x 20".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting including what colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Rig

Pump - stage 4

I decided that the landscape was too light so I gave it a glaze of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and Lukas No 5 Medium this morning so that it was dry enough to work on this afternoon. I then roughed in some more colour so that I have a good foundation for tomorrow when I hope to pretty much finish it. Colours used: Ultramarine Violet, Manganese Violet, Winsor Violet, Permanent Sap Green, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Brilliant Pink, Naples Yellow, Yellow Lake Deep and Warm Light Yellow.

Pump - stage 3

Pretty much finished the sky and have put down some early colour on the landscape. I have since realised that the landscape needs to be darker which I will do tomorrow when the paint is dry.

Pump - stage 2

This is after the second colour pass for the sky, a couple of hours tomorrow should finish it.
Colours used were: Ultramarine Violet, Manganese Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalocyanine Turquoise, Pale Violet, Permanent Orange, Brilliant Pink, Warm Light Yellow and Zinc White.

Pump - stage 1

Continuing with the theme of signs of human intervention in vast landscapes I decided to revisit a subject I painted earlier ("Rig") and have another oil pump in a vast flat Texan landscape. I didn't really feel that I had done the subject justice last time so this time it is the pump set against a flat horizon and a stormy threatening sky to try and get across the loneliness of the location. This is of course another painting in my The Big Sky  series.
This is the tonal underpainting stage which was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then the tonal underpainting was dome with a rag using the same paint mix.
Oil on linen 30: x 20".

Mail Box

I like this theme of signs of human intervention within vast often hostile natural landscapes, the South Western States being particularly suited to this theme. This is out in the boondocks of New Mexico with a rusting mail box by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, a small path leads off at the left to an unseen shack, a bit of the road surface can be seen in the far right corner. These pictures are kind of bittersweet in that it shows the struggle against Nature of people to live in such inhospitable environments made more so by the approaching storm... on the other hand it is kind of a celebration of people being able to do this in the first place.
Originally I had a couple of telegraph poles in the middle of the landscape breaking the horizon but I decided that they distracted you away from the main focus of the picture, the lonely mail box so I painted them out, being able to get away with it compositionally as it is approximately a third of the way in still breaking the horizon.
One more in my The Big Sky series. Oil on linen 30" x 20".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting including the colours I used in previous posts on this blog.

Mail Box - stage 5

I decided to paint out the two telegraph poles over my breakfast coffee this morning and then made a start on the landscape. I am being a bit cautious at first as I need to work out what colours to use on the landscape and have just roughed in some colours to see how they look. Colours used were: Permanent Sap Green, Bright Green Lake, Naples Yellow, Yellow Lake Deep, Permanent Orange, Magenta Violet, Ultramarine Violet, Brilliant Pink and Warm Light Yellow.
I am trying to get a nice variation of colours in the landscape as it is much more prominent now that I have deleted the telegraph poles and needs to look interesting.

Mail Box - stage 4

The sky is pretty much finished bar some tweaking later on and then I roughed in some more tone on the landscape. I am now debating whether to leave out the telegraph poles that are indeed halfway painted out already. Just having the mail box there by itself emphasises even more the loneliness of it's location, fortunately compositionally it breaks the horizon line too so I could get away with it.
As usual I will decide over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee...