"Monument Valley"

Acrylic landscape painting on 12" x 16" canvas panel. 

The desert southwest is simply stunning. The many deserts, mountains, buttes, mesas, and canyons seem to whisper ancient tales of bravery, survival and great respect for the unforgiving wilds that stretch for hundreds of miles.  Every scene makes me want to hike to the farthest corners, just to see sights no one else ever has. 

My dad took a fantastic black and white photo of exactly this scene in Monument Valley, Utah, in the 1990s.  It is the only photo capturing this view of two of the monuments from this angle I've ever seen.  The dead tree limb seeming to point at the monuments made It a completely unique view of the area, likely not accessible now that roads and tourist access has change.

I loved the majestic nature of seeing two, the expansiveness of the desert behind, and the dead limb seeming to point to the focus of the scene.