Desert Sunrise 1-3 - Three Works in Progress

Today I was thinking about when we went to Nevada for a vacation a number of years ago and thought I would like to paint a few desert scenes at sunrise perhaps as a small triptych.

I decided to work on all three pieces at the same time, beginning with the sky and using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson as I worked down toward the bottom of the paper.

I lightly drew in the horizon line and added some mountain ranges in the distance and a large rock race in the foreground on each of the paintings.

Desert Sunrise 1

On the first one I put in some of the desert sand with a mixture of burnt sienna and raw sienna. I may change the colour of the sand slightly in each of the three paintings, depending on how they appear against the foreground rocks.

I started painting the closer rocks using various combinations of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna and alizarin crimson.

Desert Sunrise 2

Before I could complete the foreground rocks on the third painting I had unexpected company drop by and had to put everything away.

I will post each of these painting at a later date as more work on them is completed.







Desert Sunrise 3