Description
Sweet Summer Sweat is an original 6″ x 6″ watercolor in the Tails California collection of mini paintings painted on the back porch of a ranch in the oasis of the desert in June 2023. FRAME INCLUDED.
After having been home only two weeks from my artist’s residency in South Carolina in May, I flew to Las Vegas for a drive across the desert in a Ford Mustang with the love of my life to my second artist’s residency in Fallon, Nevada. Fallon is the home of the real Top Gun, the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center. Using Fallon as a base camp, we traveled to South Tahoe, California and several interesting locations in the Nevada desert.
Pyramid Lake with its crystal clear water is featured in this desert scene of Sweet Summer Sweat. If the title of this work seems familiar, think Hotel California. I found it too much to resist. The water. The pelicans. The geese. The tadpoles. The mountains surrounding the lake. While the beauty is not knock-your-socks off as in the spectacular beauty of Yosemite, it embodies all of the mysteries of the ages in the stark juxtaposition of a mountain lake in the desert.
I couldn’t resist applying a favorite 90’s country song title Heads Carolina, Tails California to my two new series of watercolor paintings. Going from a romantic, humid trip to South Carolina to paint, visit friends, and enjoy lake time to a drive across the desert all the way from Vegas to California was too much for my artist’s soul to not express in fresh artwork from both locations. Furthermore, since I’m in the sweetest, most romantic season of my life, it is my duty as an artist to attempt to capture that wild fire on paper.
I am enjoying using a lighter palette of colors and loose brushstrokes. The Tails California series uses the same fresh, light and breezy colors of the Heads Carolina series. I think both series are a good reminder that we don’t have to fret decisions; maybe both options, heads or tails, are going to be in our best interests.
This 6″ x6″ original watercolor painting comes framed in a 10″ x 10″ gold frame for your wall or table. I envision the framed painting being displayed on a table in a foyer, tastefully in a powder room, or on a desk, but really you’re the one who gets to decide. Where would you like your daily does of inspiration?
