Desert Brush, 2026 by Ray Patrick — original oil painting — 2026.020.016

Subject

A red mesa wall across the distance, a broad green flat in front of it, and pale blue-grey boulders scattered through the foreground.

Composition

Four horizontal registers — sky, mesa, flat, foreground rock — each a clear band. The mesa breaks the rhythm by stepping down from right to left, and the boulders break it again by being the only rounded forms in the picture.

Palette

Blue sky over rust and oxblood cliffs, a strong emerald flat, and foreground rocks in pale blue and mint. The red and the green are placed directly against each other with nothing between them.

Handling

The cliffs are built from short stacked strokes that read as strata; the flat below is dragged in long horizontals. The boulders are rounded with two or three curved strokes each and left unfinished at the edges.

Medium and support

Oil on board. Canvas grain reads through the sky and the flat; the rocks carry the heaviest paint. The board's edges are painted white.

Signature

No signature visible within the painted area.