I love the boldness of colors and defined shapes and the the use of dark rich colors and shapes in the foreground which are offset by the soft blended pastels of the background and the sky. You’ve captured the colors of the desert beautifully, showing depth and richness. The overall first impression is that it looks like an early morning or late evening scene of light coming from the left, close to or just rising or setting. The saguaro and the immediate foreground are quite intense with the sharp outline of the tree and the dark colors, including the use of solid black at the base of the tree blending into the blues of its shadow side and its cast shadow along the ground. What a nice touch!
The texture and strokes you use for the desert floor are bold and defined and visually intense with the darkest colors in the closer area blending into the lighter bright yellow ones of the grassy scrub. Then the mountains and sky are hazier, applied and blended with softer and lighter colors and the scene recedes in the distance.
Your application of colors and shapes go from the hard strokes of pastels of the elements that are visually closer to the softer blending and application of the colors and shapes of the mountains and the sky. What I’m trying to say is that your painting is not just visually stunning as a desert landscape but that the strokes of color and the way you laid them down is a strong element in the viewing of the picture. Your use of the broadside of the light blue pastel In your mountains soften the shape and give the perception of atmospheric haze creating the softness.
You don’t need to do paint alongs, though you might like it, because you know what you’re doing. I think you did a great job!
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