Beauty in the Desert

/ Jodi

Pink Flowering Cactus Watercolor - Beauty in the Desert - 5x7 140lb Arches Cold Press

Pink Flowering Cactus Watercolor – Beauty in the Desert – 5×7 140lb Arches Cold Press

Pink Flowering Cactus Watercolor – Beauty in the Desert.

On our recent trip to Arizona, I was really blown away by the beauty in the desert.

I’ve heard some say it is brown and dry and “ugly.”  I disagree.

Though it is so very different from the lush green that people who live in the Eastern U.S. are accustomed to, there is so much beauty in the foliage and the terrain.

Many of the cacti were blooming when we were there, and I was so drawn to the pink flowering ones.

Here is my version of Beauty in the Desert – a pink flowering cactus.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

#WorldWatercolorMonth

#McKinneyX2Designs ETSY Shop

Paints used:  Rembrandt Quinacridone Rose, Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold, Olive Green, and Perylene Green.

43 thoughts on “Beauty in the Desert”

  4. Beautiful watercolor, love the colors on the flowering cactus! The desert does hold it’s own beauty and you captured some of it in your painting. Thank-you for this lovely Sunday morning moment of joy!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. I’ve always thought the desert must have looked like a totally alien landscape to the first explorers who came upon it…but it does have its own beauty. These are worthy representatives! (K)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. I agree with you there is a lot of beauty in the desert! The red soil, rocks and stones of different colors, and sizes, the cacti, and the flowers, and shrubs! A lot people are totally blow away to see flowers blooming in the desert. It’s a wonderful surprise.

    Your beautiful blooming cactus is a stunner! You’ve blossomed as a watercolor artist too! xx

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  16. I lived in Tucson for 3 years. I was glad to move back to the East when we did – I missed the seasons; but I always love to go back to that unique beauty and find myself longing for it at times. Now that Hubs is retired, I’d love to be a snowbird if it wasn’t for my grandchildren… Can move too far away from them! Beautiful watercolor Jodi!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. You are so right! Sometimes we only see the beauty we are used to, and anything outside of our experience is automatically deemed ugly or plain. When I moved from the wooded hills of Missouri to the flat plains of Kansas, I thought I had just moved to an “ugly” area. But the longer I lived there, the more I learned to appreciated the beauty of the plains.
    That being said, your painting of the cactus flower is beautiful!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  18. Oops, Jodi! I may have not waited for my comment to show up long enough. . . or it is awaiting approval?
    Anyway, I love your layered and translucent green cactus parts and the radiant flowers! xo 💖

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  19. Beautiful layered and loose catus flower. Im a bit behind on my mail, we just had a group of 170 family camp and short on sraff, so had to help out. Their week ended today. Hope you send a copy to who ever you were visiting. I know I’d appreciate just as much as the tourist. Stunning colors, glad you edited the red dirt or sand. This little beauty needed to be the featured, just the way you did

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      • Yes and no. Moved here 3 years ago, left the suburbs and the grandgirls and moved 3 hrs north to the the foothills of the lovely Sierras, where i spent mant years skiing, how ironic quit skiing 10 years ago, and now live an hour plus away. My spouse took a job as Camp Director, after 40 years as a building contractor, at the Christian Churches of Northern California, ” Community of the Great Commission ” retreat and Campground. which we have come to for many years, my spouse had come since 6 yrs old. How full circle life can be. We live on 700 acres of forest on the top of the Ridge looking over the Chrystal Range. It’s heavenly, very remote and in gold country. History everwhere. Look up Michigan Bluff, Foresthill, Auburn. We sre less than an hour from Auburn a little more than hour to Grass Valley, where my mother in law and artist sister in law live. The camp is non profit, so many organizations can rent it, it’s not open to the public but we have many groups from churches all religions, to Music camp, and Actor camp, college campus groups, international groups, grandma and me, Gay, and Lesbian, transgender groups. The colleges bring up all sorts of groups bicycling, running groups, photography, arts, spiritual healing, forestry, marshall arts, dance groups. I love it, Our busy time is Summer, week long events 100 to 130 is usual, but we had a new group this year and they overbooked, bringing a 170. I dont usually work except when the over 100 groups come in, but this year we had a hard time getting staff. Its too far for most people to want to commute in on mountain roads and our local town has maybe 500 population, not sure. The economy picking up has helped locals find jobs in Auburn, its tough competing when work is very seasonal. The rest of the year October to May is weekend mostly and smaller groups 30-60. You really get to meet a variety of people, races, and religions, from all over the world. Don’t get much time with them, but its a wonderful experience, probably due to there really being no conflcts, everyone who attends is fulfilling their passion whether it is art or dance or music, or spiritual, or family, or life changing or healing, or training. Its great to have all this positive energy, and people helping people with new skills. We are so remote, that we are one of the last on the line for PGE, we have a well that provides our water, and propane for cooking and heating. We have a few neighbors further up that dont have electricity and have to capture rain water. So when people come their is very little phone service that work. Our little town has a phone company that provides landline and wi fi but its very limited. too many people will slow the system to a halt. For many groups its exactly what they need. Turn off the stress, find nature, monitor your resources, conserve do it by hand the way their grandparents did. It gets pretty hot here and the few luxuries we have is a pool and overhead fans in the cabins. Those in their tents have to find a breeze outdoors. Fortunately our nights cool off, and stars are a miraculous site. Like in art, i feel less is more, we decided to live on less but as unexpectedly as change is, less turned into sooooooo much more. I’ve always been doing sometype of artistic creative craft, I had been dabbling with watercolor paints since my stain glass, but painted like a 3rd grader i a colorbook. So idecided when the roadswere passable and the hours daylight enough I took a water color class to learn how to use them. It took me 2 semesters to finish the beginning watercolor class. Then i got this ipad for my birthday in February 2016 and by September I found utube, and this year you. My sister in law is thinking about getting a group of artist together and renting one of the lodges for a weekend retreat. Perhaps late September October or early spring March April, im hoping to attend.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Wow – so exciting and interesting! Sounds like a wonderful place. How fortunate you are to be able to be there! I’ve never taken a watercolor class. Would so love to. I’ve only watched youtube videos and experimented on my own. Isn’t it wonderful what we can learn through computers on our own?

        Liked by 1 person

I love hearing from you - hope you'll drop me a line