Oil on canvas
This abstract landscape painting is a visceral impression of the Chott el Djerid, the vast shimmering salt lake region of the Tunisian Sahara. It is a depiction of a different type of heat I experienced- a silent, intense and inescapable thermal presence. The bold horizontal bands mirror the overwhelming scale and horizon of the desert while a dominant field of brilliant fiery orange above embodies the oppressive intensity of the desert sun. It is not the blue of the sky, but the color of the heat itself- blistering, dry and absolute. A thin pale cream strip separates the fiery sky from the land as a shimmering mirage where the air is so thick with heat that the boundaries between earth and sky dissolve into a blinding haze. The dark charcoal grey and ochre thick impasto section suggests the harsh, unforgiving topography of dried, mineral rich mud and rock.