Desert Wise Man

I rarely paint a subject that is not in some way connected to the American West.  This painting is one of those rare exceptions.  The gentleman in this work was a guide for my husband and me in the western desert of Egypt.  He had a deep knowledge of a place that to the untrained eye looks the same for hundreds of miles in any direction: endless sand dunes rolling into vast distances as far as the eye could see.  Besides an in-depth knowledge of the desert, it was his quite, assured, almost elegant demeanor that made me want to paint him.