Tree Tobacco, Castle Creek, AZ
Bloomed Oct 27, 2020 2 PM

12×16 Oil on Canvas 2021

This painting was inspired by the landscape near Castle Hot Springs, Arizona. It is a place of collisions, juxtapositions, and unexpected discoveries. Hot water gushes from the ground to converge with arid land and create a unique Arizona oasis. Near the property, Castle Creek bubbles up through the desert floor and then sinks below the earth, like a dotted line on paper. The trail in this area is rich with life. Birds, butterflies, reptiles and plants all thrive in this riparian ecosystem.

It was here, during a stay at the legendary hot springs, that I encountered wild tree tobacco swaying in the breeze. A hummingbird had raced by overhead, and I was eager to see where she was headed. Tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) love the streams and riverbeds of Arizona. At the Salt River near where I live, the shrubs have taken over parts of the landscape, creating forests of blue-green foliage and the yummiest yellow blooms you will ever see. Don’t roll ‘em and smoke ‘em, though; the leaves, even in the smallest of doses, can be lethal.

But they are beautiful graceful plants; the hummingbirds adore them, and so do I.