None So Blind As She Who Cannot See

Over the years I have left home with my art gear in the car looking for a place that might inspire me on more days than I care to admit.  Much to my dismay, most of those 'hunting' days were failures.  I'd see something with possibilities but pass it by just in case the real subject I was looking for was just around the corner. I never found anything that made me stop the car and shout, "I shall paint this!" in an AHA kind of voice.  

I've looked at paintings of landscapes that are of simple, small spots in the world that have been inspiring to me, but for years it didn't occur to me that the inspiration wasn't in the scene, but in the artist.  I may live in a desert among very few architectural beauties or rustic covered bridges,  (none, in fact) but looking at my photos one day I suddenly saw that what I do live by is a very pretty spot by the side of a long, straight and otherwise boring road.

1. The playa in the summer monsoon season

The thing about this spot in the world is that it's a little bitty alkaline low place in a playa, or dry lake bed, along a highway.  It fills up with rain water and is over-flowing or dry and cracked, depending on how long it's been since we've had wet weather.  Little bitty or not, it lends itself to some pretty spectacular views.

2. Evenings in the desert are reflected in the surface of the water when the winds are still

I may never set my easel up next to this place, but my photos point out to me that I love this playa.  It is one of the things in my world that inspires me.  It draws my eye and captures my attention every time I drive past it.  Whether I end up painting it or not, I am stunned that I have driven past for years and never realized how important it is to my store of creative energy.  

3. A rare winter snow day completely changes the scene, obscuring the distant mountains and bringing the focus up close

The color combinations captured in these photos have been transferring to my paper in other paintings.  The proportions and light have been showing up in my landscape attempts and I didn't even know it.  I don't have to sit here and copy this exactly for it to have influence on my art.  This place has been sitting softly in a quiet place in my mind informing my life all along.  

How mistaken I was to ever leave home thinking one place would grab me and I'd stop my car and create my masterpiece when every spot I saw could have been a masterpiece if only I'd have opened my eyes to see that the beauty is inside of me, stored up and ready to flow down my brushes and onto my paper.