Desert Highway, 2026 by Ray Patrick — original oil painting — 2026.042.035

Subject

Desert at dusk from the roadside — a mass of dark scrub, a utility pole with its crossbars and wires, and a band of sunset along the horizon behind.

Composition

The scrub sits centrally as a single black mass, and the pole stands just right of it, the one upright against a sky of horizontal bands. The wires run out to both edges and tie the top third together.

Palette

Pale green-cream at the top of the sky dropping through peach to a hot scarlet band at the horizon. Below, cobalt and violet, then a foreground of blue-black and bottle green.

Handling

The sky is laid in long horizontal strokes of closely related value; the scrub is built from short curved stabs that keep their edges. The pole and wires are drawn last in thin dark lines across dry paint.

Medium and support

Oil on board. Thick in the sky with visible ridges; the foreground is dense and dark. The board's edges are painted white.

Signature

No signature visible within the painted area.