Tracking Through Rough Country

This is a piece entirely born from hiking and plein air painting around Sedona, Arizona. I'm a huge fan of western movies and love the whole 'lone lawman' storyline that is so often the basis of so many of them. So one day as I sat studying a scene for a painting, I just saw a marshall clearly in my imagination. I could almost feel him in the space with me and I knew my plein air piece wouldn't be a stand alone painting but also be the source for this studio painting. I really struggle with complicated objects as a painter, so the desert terrain with all the gnarly vegetation was such a good chance to grow in that area as well.