Locals and travellers familiar with the area will locate the distinctive crown-like peaks just outside Bishop, California instead of Nevada, but in truth, this landscape is a pastiche of my memories of Nevada. For me, California is urban, dirty, concrete, crowded, smelly, polluted, and far from pristine and austere. I had visited and loved Death Valley National Park some years ago (and yes, I know part of it is technically in California), but I can’t shake off the feeling that “No, it’s not really in California, that’s just some legal technicality wholly irrelevant to reality.” For me, Nevada is beautiful and austere, serene in its remoteness, everlasting, far more permanent than the little insectine irritations and crazed bustle that humans have made their living of and imposed upon almost the whole state of California (or at least in its urban centres). Nevada is the land of Kyle Hyde and salt flat deserts and peaks like stern, angry fingers at the sky, extending into eternity. It was the only place in my life I could just be.

This painting, as simple as it is, was quite personal to me, so I signed it using my nickname instead of my artist name.

I started off with a quick sketch to lay out the composition, then blocked off various areas in a number of value studies. The first study was too dark. The second study had a compelling stripe of light in the centre, but I wasn't satisfied with how the shadows flattened the landscape in the bottom half of the composition. The third study allowed the shadows of the rain clouds to hug some of the lower mountains in a compelling way... I quickly painted that, instead. I added a little ridge to the bottom left corner of the composition, to lend a sense of overlooking height to the viewer.