Desert & Mesa
Dune, canyon and plateau in dry heat and hard light.
About Desert & Mesa
Dry country is about erosion, and erosion is a shape problem rather than a color one. Every canyon wall and mesa edge in this collection is a record of water that is no longer there.
The colors measured across these paintings sit warm, amber and orange over brown, but with more blue in them than people expect. Desert shadow is blue, sharply so, because there is nothing in the air to soften it. Hard light means hard edges between lit rock and shaded rock, and painting that with a knife rather than blending it is the honest way round.
Scale is the thing to get right when you buy one. Canyon work loses its drop at small sizes, so if a piece is doing the work in a room rather than filling a gap, go up a size from the one you first reach for. These carry a lot of wall on their own and do not need company.