Travel the seventy-six mile Davis Mountains Scenic Loop and you'll find yourself changing directions at old Sawtooth, a craggy, windswept peak at the end of the narrow range that creates a sky island between El Paso and Midland and, nowhere. Among the many faces of Sawtooth Peak in Far West Texas is this one, a daytime portrait made as the long, hot days of summer subtly shift to crisp autumn nights that bring color to the varied species of grasses below. Sawtooth is the one looking ragged and tiny way in the distance at the edge of this painting, where it anchors the west end of this isolated Davis Mountains range. In this view, you're looking north across the middle of the isle of mountains, remote ranch country much nearer the Rio Grande and Mexico than any city.

While tourists delight in driving the Loop, the scenery isn't contrived. This is real terrain, not a movie set. Working ranches cover most of these mountains, much of it land passed down and treasured for four generations or more. Grass is almost as precious as water, so when it waves tall in the September wind, hard-working cattle folks smile a little broader because they know they've grown gold for hungry livestock and cover for wildlife to rear their young in.  Seeing this interplay of weather, land and critters puts life in proportion and makes me realize how all of us are connected to the earth, come rain or shine.

WINDSWEPT COLOR is a 24" x 12" pastel landscape. I chose that shape so I could show the vastness and distance of this country, with the majesty of the mountains backdropping hip-high grass waving in the West Texas wind. The original sold, but it's available as a fine art print on my website, should you need a breath of high desert air on your wall to root you to the good things this earth has to offer.