I have been working on the Southwest as an abstract theme since my trip out to Zion and Brice several years back and occasionally hit what I feel is the essence of the place. This new piece is dominated by the desert dryness in the middle of the canvas with long passages of landscape vistas in black. It feels to me like looking down on the salt flats of Utah with its heated dryness and textures of sodium deposits. The orange is the pieces of sedimentary formations that begin to protrude out of the desert at the southern edge of the plain. I have many more pieces of southwest paintings at the Studio Gallery in DC.
Wow–memorable painting. The colors and shapes are marvelous.
The apparent "light" of this piece is as distinctive as the dark SW painting you posted, I believe in December. Really evokes the feelings of dryness you were looking for.