Abiquiu, New Mexico

The light in New Mexico is like nothing else I have found. It is so clear and bright that every colour seems to jump off the paper. In this painting, I really wanted to show that huge contrast between the warm, baked colours of the mountain and the cooler greens of the bushes sitting in the front. The sun hits those rocks and turns them into shades of yellow ochre and burnt sienna that look almost hot to the touch.

I started with a very light sky using a bit of cerulean blue to keep it feeling airy. The mountain is the star of the show here, so I used some strong alizarin crimson and cadmium red mixed with earth tones to get those deep, rusty shadows on the cliffs. It is all about finding that balance between the dry desert ground and the solid weight of the hills behind it.

For the foreground, I painted the sage bushes using a mix of cobalt green and ultramarine blue. I like how these cooler, dusty greens make the orange and yellow parts of the mountain look even warmer. Using these opposite colours is a great trick to make a painting feel like it has real depth and distance. It makes the mountain feel like it is miles away in that thin mountain air.

I finished the piece with some quick brushstrokes for the dry grass and a little bit of white paint for the sharpest highlights where the sun hits the white sand. It was a joy to try and catch that sense of a vast, open space. This original painting is currently for sale. Please do contact me if you would like more information or are interested in adding it to your collection.