Landscapes — oil painting by Ray Patrick
Eleven small oil panels of the high desert laid out in two long rows — Joshua trees, cumulus over open range, a balanced boulder, prickly pear, a utility pole, and two sunsets.
The panels run away from the viewer in two columns and are read as a series rather than as one picture. Every one is built on the same armature: a level horizon in the lower third, a sky taking everything above it, and the incident placed off-centre.
Cobalt and cerulean skies with cloud in bone and dove, over ground in rust, sage and emerald. The two sunset panels at the near end break the run with cadmium orange and scarlet.
Loaded and broken throughout — the cloud laid in flat square-ended strokes stacked rather than modelled, the ground dabbed over a warm underpainting. Seen together the group shows one method applied eleven times.
Oil on canvas board, eleven panels, the edges painted white. A studio photograph of a group of works rather than a single picture.
No signature legible at this scale.