I was out for a ride through the desert on my motorcycle one evening. I was getting tired, so I pulled off to the side of the road to rest. I looked behind me and saw a brilliant sunset which cast the rugged, jagged peaks of the Bradshaw Mountains in an imposing, dark purple silhouette against the sky. I also noticed that the dust my tires had kicked up was slowly drifting through the air, between the saguaros and palo verde trees, looking like wispy mist.

And I snapped the photo which I used to make this painting.

A perfect combination of accidents and being in exactly the right place, at the right time, on the ride machine.

My main emphases for this scene were capturing the way the warm light interacted with the ground and mountains, painting the texture of the ground itself, and trying to recreate the dust floating through the trees (which took me several attempts, but I eventually got it. Gouache to the rescue again!).

The dead trees in the river bed also added a layer of mystery and tension to the scene.