Tecopa

Desert Moonset with Headlights

/ Merilee / 4 Comments

When I go to the desert, there are many things that I see over and over and over again.  They are views that are like family.  Sometimes when I see these things I think, “One day I’ll paint that.”, even though I immediately tell myself that’s just dumb.

“Why would you paint that?  How could you even begin to paint that?  No one will understand why you chose to do it, so why?”  But I keep looking at it thinking how beautiful it is.  And how that particular view gives me an odd sense of comfort.

When I go to Tecopa, which is where I stay when I go to Death Valley, I always stay in the exact same room.  It’s my room.  My home-away-from-home.  I get up very early in the morning, usually around 4:00.  I go outside to look at the sky to see the Milky Way and the stars while coffee is brewing in the little coffee maker I take with me.  When I look to the west, I always see the headlights or taillights of a car or a truck driving up or down Highway 127.  I like seeing the headlights appear and disappear as the vehicle drives behind the mud hills that line the road as it goes through this portion of the Amargosa Basin, on it’s way to the tiny town of Shoshone.  If the wind is just right, I sometimes can hear the engine of the car and I always wonder, where the heck are you going at 4am???  It’s four o’clock in the morning.  Where are you going?  But they are always there, no matter what time it is.  The headlights. They are like friends.

A couple of days ago, something inside me said, “It’s time.  It’s time to paint the headlights.”  So, armed with a few terrible, blurry,  half-assed iPhone pictures and my mind and memories equipped with feelings and visions from probably close to 15 years of seeing this every time I go to my room in the desert, I decided to paint it.  For Valentine’s Day.  It’s something that is close to my heart.

Oil on canvas

20″ x 24″

Tecopa, California

The Waterways

/ Merilee / 5 Comments

There is a place in the desert where I like to go every time I am there.  I call it The Waterways.  It’s an area where, when there is water from rains, it collects in long, undulating, depressions in the mud.  When the mud is dry, the waterways are white and salty, with cracks in the mud surface.  But when there is rain, the water collects in the depressions, reflecting the sky and turning the whole are into a magical spectacle. I call them The Waterways.  Earlier this month, they were filled with water from day after day of rain.

Oil on Linen Board

16″ x 20″

Captured in the wild, refined in the studio.

Atmospheric River

/ Merilee / 4 Comments

Last month I made my way out to the desert to paint.  I like going from October thru April, when it’s cooler.  Actually, January is my favorite month to work in the Death Valley area.  It’s cold in the morning and usually pretty mild mid-day.  The sun doesn’t burn my skin through my clothing when I’m standing in it for hours painting.

This past November, however, was a little different.  It rained.  And rained.  Then it rained some more.  An atmospheric river decided to come into California and wring itself out in the deserts.  It didn’t make a great situation for painting outside, however, I was able to make a few starts while drops fell that I could finish either back in my room or at home.

This view knocked my socks off one of the days when I was turning around in a 360 to see the clouds moving across the sky.  Then I saw it.  And said, “that’s it.”  The quintessential line of dark blue desert mountains silhouetted against the sky.  But this time it had heavy, water-filled clouds slowly moving across it from west to east, dropping pockets of rain.  So I painted it, trying to catch that watery vibe.

Atmospheric River

12″ x 24″

Oil on linen