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