The Surreal Desert -- and a Surreal Desert Painter

As a few of you may have noticed by now, I make mostly desert paintings. Most of these tend to be places within America's national parks and monuments, particularly Joshua Tree, Organ Pipe Cactus, Saguaro, Arches, Canyonlands, Death Valley and others.

Places like these seem to have an air of surrealism about them, more so than some of the national parks we've visited in the eastern states, beautiful as they are. I mentioned before: I like surrealism as an art form, and painting desert landscapes is a convenient way to "sneak" a little of the surreal into the artwork.

The painting to the right is one example of that. This scene is in Arches National Park, with Double Arch to the right of center. The lighting is pretty much the way it was that day, in late July as a thunderstorm was approaching from behind. (In fact, it poured rain soon after I left this spot and saw red waterfalls, tinted by the red-brown soil, tumbling down the rockfaces -- and across the roads!)

Ah...the surreal desert! Perfect for a lover of surrealism like me -- a rather surreal character, if I say so myself!