Moonrise on the Saddle

Moonrise on the Saddle

“Moonrise on the Saddle” is an acrylic testament to the desert’s profound alchemy of light and shadow. Painted en plein air as dusk surrendered to the nascent night at Saddle Mountain, Arizona, this work distills a moment where the terrestrial meets the celestial. The mountain, a colossal presence, is imbued with the last echoes of day’s warmth and the burgeoning cool luminescence of the moon’s ascent, its craggy facets rendered in a symphony of russets and ochres. Above, the sky shifts from twilight’s muted greens and grays to the first whisper of night, a silent canvas awaiting the full unveiling of the cosmos. A lone saguaro stands sentinel, a silent witness to this unfolding drama. This painting is not merely a depiction, but an immersion into the desert’s quiet grandeur, inviting contemplation on the vast, ancient rhythms of the earth under a newly dawning moon.