Painting image (click to enlarge)

In spite of my better judgement, this was painted in direct sunlight from the side of the highway, during the spike of a four day heatwave. The intense heat and humidity brought out the colors of the atmosphere, stratifying even short distances into shades of violet and turquoise, while the direct sun pulls in bright yellows and greens from the foregrounded orchard. The impasto on this painting is thick as my oil pastels were melting in my fingers as I painted!