Long Cacti, 2026 by Ray Patrick — original oil painting — 2026.050.040

Subject

Ocotillo standing in a pale wash at dusk, their whip-like stems rising from low mounds of brush, with a violet range behind and a green band between.

Composition

The ocotillo are the whole composition — four groups of vertical stems at uneven intervals across the middle, each rising from a dark mound. The wash below them is empty and takes the lower half.

Palette

Cool and low-keyed: cobalt sky, mauve-violet hills, a thin acid-green strip, then a floor of pale blue-grey. The stems are a dark green and the one warm note is an ochre bush at the lower right.

Handling

The stems are drawn in single upward flicks of the brush, light on the stroke so they taper; the mounds beneath are stabbed in short dark marks. The wash is dragged horizontally and left broken.

Medium and support

Oil on board. Moderately loaded, the weave reading through the pale floor. The board's edges are painted white.

Signature

No signature visible within the painted area.