This was the first piece I painted on my road trip. We woke up super early and headed to Double Arch in Arches National Park for sunrise, where I set up to paint beneath them. The wind started to pick up, and I had to use my whole upper body to pin the sketchbook down while attempting to keep my brushes wet and palettes from filling up with sand. It was the start of a week-long windstorm that ripped through the desert, filling every nook and cranny with grit and sand and made for some pretty rowdy hiking, driving and painting. I spent three windswept hours painting beneath the arch, and finally conceded defeat as it howled so hard it ripped out a page of my sketchbook. I finished this piece over the next few days while sheltering behind rocks and spiny yucca plants, and in the car while my sister drove us towards monument valley, which we didn’t see due to the sandstorm raging all around us.

This 8x10” watercolour and pen and ink original comes unframed, and will be trimmed to size so there won’t be any white around the edges.