MORNING MESAS

MORNING MESAS 30″ X 40″ X 1.5″ acrylic on canvas. In southwestern art, subject matter is often viewed from afar, over great distances. As objects recede in the distance, they seem lose their intensity of color. The same holds true for mountains and mesas. In “Morning Mesas” the mesas in the Grand Canyon fade into the distance. This is due to the fact that there are billions of microscopic water droplets and dust particles in our atmosphere. As sunlight hits those microscopic water droplets, the droplets act as prisms, breaking up the light into the colors of the rainbow, with blue and red being dominant colors in that color spectrum. The dust particles deflect the light, adding to this effect. and dirt particles act as a prism for the light , breaking up the colors into the colors of the rainbow. That is why, on a clear sunny day, when you look at a distant mountain it looks purple. Here, the artist takes artistic license by adding color to the composition, placing ‘cool” colors in the background and painting the warmer colors in the foreground. The coolest colors being blue and the warmest colors being red, which is closest to the viewer.