This painting was the result of a one hour demo I gave in a workshop in Central Mexico. The location was on an excursion to Minerale de Pozos, we stopped among 18 century ruins with magnificent views down to the valley and town. The prickly pear cactus was to be found everywhere we looked, I have never seen so many cacti in my life. The landscape reminded me of a very stylized western film. I was delighted to paint the cacti up close. I was demonstrating how to use the opposite color of a predominate feature as an underpainting. In this case I used an intense clay red underpainting to contrast with the blue mountains and green valley.

In literature and movies I often like stylized morality tales like A Thousand and One Nights and Star Trek. In a similar way I often love stylized painting, in which the color the brush work are outstanding features, yet with just enough real touches to keep it from being too abstract, or all in the mind. It's a duality in which the paint feels like paint, yet feels real too.