Prickly pear in fruit against a dark ground
A prickly pear in fruit seen close and low, its pads lit against a dark ground, with boulders and fallen rock running across the foreground.
The cactus sits dead centre and takes the middle half of the picture; everything else is darker and recedes from it. There is no horizon and almost no sky — the field closes at the top in shadow.
Chartreuse and lemon through the lit pads against indigo and plum in the shadows behind. The fruit are small saturated spots of crimson and magenta, and the rock below is terracotta and ochre.
Laid wet into wet so the darks bleed together behind the cactus, with the lit pads reserved and painted round rather than lifted. The fruit are single touches dropped in last on dry paper.
Watercolour on paper. Transparent throughout, with unpainted margins on all four sides.
Lower left, RAY RAY IS HAPPY, in black over the rock, letters widely spaced.