18"x22" Oil on Panel/ Available
$1500
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The American Southwest has a variety of ecosystems. One of the most appealing to me is the pinyon/juniper forest ecosystem of the high desert. Camping above Monticello, Utah, we stood on a high ridge and watched the clouds play and dance in the wind above us. It was a sight and feeling I'd like to hold onto forever. That's part of the "why I paint the West" rationale. There are landscapes and plays-of-light I have seen on my travels that are tattooed on my soul. Painting them as I remember is an act of gratitude.
The summer of 2020 was a smoky one. The American West was ablaze for most of the season. We watched the Pine Gulch fire from our home: thick, billowing clouds rising high in the sky, flattening out, and spreading to cover the sky of the Grand Valley. We lived in hot, dry, smelly, and gray world for weeks. When the smoke began to clear the pyrotechnics were limited to spectacular sunsets; explosions of color as the sun set and changed angles behind the clouds. I photographed many spectacular sunsets during the summer of 2020. This one was one of my favorites and begged to be painted.
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"Seductive Sediment", 60 x 40, by Carol Nelson |