Week 125

It feels like a prodded bull let from its pen. The compulsion, neither good or bad, is something primal. When our littles are tucked safely in at nap time, we race into the studio. Whether we were in the mood to paint not, the emblazoned desire to get in there and get started is the same. You never know how long you’re going have. There’s an anxiety and a thrill there. I guess that’s truly why we call them Quickies. 

Approaching this one as if it were a plien air piece, we did a minimalistic drawing set on a gold underpainting. It was fast and free until the bull was quelled. Satiated.  Only then could we see the full story of the movement that had captured our minds and brushes- swirling, flowing like a mist.  

The soft sandy dunes meet the sagebrush and blow warm sandy flecks over the desert grasses. The day is beginning. The cool warmth will intensify with the sun. The sand is still radiating heat from the day before, a silent homage to the perpetual sun that emanates from deep within. Even still, the warm cool of a desert morning pervades the expansive terrain with a hushed peace. Serenity of all things to come and go in timeless fashion. It’s a nod to quickness, a nod to brevity and a nod to beautiful things in small places and for short times. As individual moments of beauty materialize and fade, each one short in it’s life, together they create an immortal presence of enchantment and wonder. 

Perhaps the bestial desire to create, spurred on by our immeasurably limited time, is the grand design of the picture at large. When we pull back to see each beautiful moment created, we understand our microcosm of beauty - together with others - creates a magnificent display of light, goodness, and peace for all.

The Breath of Desert at Daybreak

20x16 | Oil on Canvas