Fires in the West

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

We drove to Tooele, Utah on a warm summer's day for a barbeque in the back yard of my wife's nephew's home by the lake. There were lots of fires in the Western United States at the time and the sky was more atmospheric than usual. I saw this scene and immediately took a picture. Time is of the essence as the conditions can change and you would not think of painting what came later. So with some cropping in PaintShop, here is my interpretation of that day and time—it became immediately one of my wife's favorite paintings and gave her peace and serenity every time she passed by it.