Colors of Spring

For those of you who haven't been to southeastern New Mexico lately, it's been an unusually wet year. I've never seen it rain so much in the two years I've been here, at least once every other week it seems. The result is that Roswell is as close to verdant as it ever gets, and in the more rural places, it's even jungle-like, with grasses and shrubs swallowing up the roads.

All this rain has also resulted in spectacular displays of wildflowers, which I've been painting up into my color blocks. Here are a few of them:

These two are based on the fresh new flowers and blossoms I saw on several of the trees downtown.

I have a cactus that I keep outside my apartment. I ignore it all year, and it rewards me with bright, coral-colored flowers.

By far, however, the majority of the blocks I've made here are inspired by the wildflowers I've seen growing alongside the road:

It's hard to believe, but I've now managed to document the colors of southeastern New Mexico for an entire year. I lost count over how many of these I actually have, but it's well over one hundred, so there's no shortage of colors for future projects. The next time anyone tells you that the desert is nothing but brown, just send them my way. I'll be more than happy to prove them wrong.