Joshua Tree and Dead Stand

Here is a studio painting done from a photo from a recent Joshua Tree visit. 12x12"oil on a Ray Mar linen board. I was to busy hiking and photographing to set up. Along with the fact the place has tons of tourists makes it less inviting to actually set up and paint. I like it the painting, but think it's slightly more realistic than I'd prefer.

This was my first desert subject and certainly I want to do more.



Here is the opposite of the quite Joshua tree painting. Oil on linen applied to wood.9x12. On the way to JT is that restaurant on the 10 that severs the Ostrich burger's called Hadley's in the town of Carbazon. Right next to Hadley's there was a burned out closed business with this stand of dead palms. It felt like it had been closed for awhile. Knowing I was going to do a painting of some part of the scene I asked the oldest woman working at Hadley's what the name of the place that closed down next door. She looked flummoxed and wondered: "There's a abandoned business next door? I never noticed." Then and there I thanked God I don't live next to a factory town, even though I like painting the subject.


I can't paint the desert with thinking of on of my favorite landscape artists and teachers Matt Smith. He grew up in the Senora desert and that gives his work an authenticity that visiting artists would be hard pressed to capture.
He's one of the most thorough, friendly and concise teachers I've had and somehow keeps his nice clothes clean while painting despite not wearing an apron. I just bought his new DVD and it was everything I remembered from his workshop, but I didn't have to fight for a good angle to see him paint or take notes. Visit his website for details, he's in my links to the right.>>>>



Here is a picture of the class workshop and a painting I bought from him.



When I started to get serious a few years ago about landscape painting Matt's work was one of the first contemporary paintings who's work I actually liked as much as the old masters like Edgar Payne. I since found more like Ray Roberts Carolyn Anderson and other contemporary painters, but Matt was the first one who made me think I could do it.