A Place Where All Is Well - 28 x 52 inches - Acrylic on Canvas

Something new had happened on my walking path in the past few months that enthralled and intrigued me. During our monsoon season, we had an early downpour that flooded the desert floor where I live. As I walked a few days later, I saw something so amazing. The water’s path down the mountains had created stunning patterned pathways made of repeating polygonal shapes. Upon investigating this amazing find, I found its name not exotic but descriptive – mudcrack. That pattern inspired me to create this painting.

I used masking tape to form the foreground stripes, keeping them straight. I resisted these stripes. The painting kept “showing” them to me. The idea of stripes on a landscape painting felt crazy. They came last after I gave in to the painting’s request. I first painted them in a subtle tone. Then, I painted a medium tone, and finally, the darker tone after realizing I should honor the vision I saw. This vision came after I painted the orange stripes on the upper mountain. They felt radical too. But somehow they looked exciting to me.

I scratched through the white mound in the middle ground with a palette knife, revealing the green layer underneath. After considering the rightness of this section for a few days, it felt just right.

I have painted the Southwestern landscape since moving to the Southwest in 2006. This piece is a little from memory and a lot from imagination. It is reminiscent of the landscape I see every day.

Karen W. from Bath, Pennsylvania, said of my landscape paintings, “Your art, to me, simplifies the desert landscape, the mountains, and the big sky. In some pieces, the colors are true to life, and at other times the colors are full of imagination and wonder, taking what Mother Nature offers to new levels. These days, the pieces are a reminder of Arizona and my time there. I miss the desert, and especially the West overall.”

The stripes on the upper yellow mountain and in the foreground are unique elements in landscape paintings. They add an exciting graphic contemporary flair to the painting. When I painted the yellow and orange striped mountain in the midground, on the right, I immediately thought of the Great Sphinx of Giza.

I invite the viewer to imagine stepping into the scene of this painting. Walk the mudcrack path, gaze at the colorful mountains, feel the peace of the pastoral places, and notice the desert grasses along the way. Feel the implications of the title of this painting. This is a place where all is well. Breathe and feel at peace.

–Mary Rush