This is a painting my husband did a few years ago.  The real location inspiration was the movie set ruins "Contrabando" on the River Road between Terlingua and Lajitas.   The River Road is a fabulously scenic drive and we try to get to The Big Lonesome (Big Bend National Park) area at least once every year.

I love the mountains and I delight in the oceans. But, it's the desert that makes you dive hard into introspection.  It is as unforgiving as any deity on Judgement Day; that Big Book opens and you are flayed at the gates, exposing all the rot.  If you're lucky, the austral desert winds act as a heart surgeon, performing a resuscitation of self, of hope.   The piquant bouquet of a creosote bush soothes the invisible cuts of daily life; worry discharges like an errant bolt of lightening into the hard ground.  Rise, shake it off and seek the prehistoric deep into those river canyons. The desert is my solace.