Palm Springs - "Desert morning light"

"Desert morning light" 12x12 plein air pastel.

Every year my husband and I spend our anniversary at our time share in Palm Springs, CA. Even though it is the hot season there, it is always an enjoyable time, with good food, great shopping and enjoying the company of each other and friends. This year, the start of the week was very hot, 114 to 116 degrees, so needles to say, I did not venture out to paint in plein air. I however enjoyed the exhibits at the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the beautiful exhibition of "Colors of the West, The Paintings of Birger Sandzen". Such a beautiful exhibit and study in color and Southwestern splendor, Birger Sandzen was known as the western Van Gogh. My good friend Lilli came down just when the weather decided to turn unseasonably cool, and pleasant. So, on Thursday we decided to get out to paint. I had wanted to paint boulders, and there are beautiful ones in the "Indian Canyons" very close to our time-share. However, it was not meant to be, as the Canyons are closed on Thursday and Fridays in September, so I drove down the road a short distance, and at the side of the road, I saw these beautiful boulders, with the morning light peaking over the top of the biggest ones. There was also a beautiful desert feather-like tree growing in the background, so I pulled over at the side of the road and painted "Desert morning light".