Description

Lit
Ocotillo and Chrysocolla, Spanish Ruin, AZ
Bloomed 4-25-2025 5:08 PM

40×30 oil on canvas
$9800 Framed

There is a hilltop near Payson, Arizona that I love. It sits at about 4500 feet, with views of the East Verde River on one side, and the Mazatzal mountain range on other. This hilltop is a botanist’s dream, with a diverse array of cactus and native Arizona plants. There is evidence that an ancient civilization spent time building, gathering and communing in this place too. I think of their time here often when I visit. I wonder what gossip filled the air as the women sat at their grinding stations, looking up occasionally at the mountains in front of them.

This is my first Ocotillo painting. The time was right to finally capture this iconic and loved Arizona bloom. As I worked, Christmas was approaching. As we unpacked tangled and partly working Christmas lights it occurred to me that the Ocotillo Bloom, in the sun, illuminates much like holiday lights. But as always, nature trumps store-bought for me, the simplicity and sheer, brilliant design of southwest blooms continue to work year after year.

Leave no Trace.