Description

On the Way Home, Prickly Poppies, Superstition Mountains, AZ
40×60
Oil on Canvas

Spring arrives right on time in the desert. It is a season filled with new light and warm air. It is the season when cacti and plants, normally unremarkable, rally for attention by blooming in the most dramatic and colorful ways. And at the foot of the Superstition Mountains, awaits a blooming wonderland. My flower loving friend and I love to roll along in True Blue with our eyes fixed on the landscape. We head to the special places where we know the desert has revealed herself before, and we hope for new discoveries. Last spring, in a sea or prickly pear, saguaros and cholla, these roadside prickly poppies caught our eye. We hopped out, photographed them, marveled at them, and then went on our way. A few hours later, on the way home, we passed them again.  This time, the warm spring sun was lower in the sky and the lighting was theatrical.

And that was the moment I knew I would paint them. Like many Arizonans I know,  they were  both wild and free, elegant and refined, and worth getting to know better.

July 9, 2020