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".