Sedona by James Edward Scherbarth

A low ridge, a red shrub and a great deal of warm air.

Sedona is an oil and cold wax painting on cradle board by James Edward Scherbarth (1949-2021), from 2011, signed and dated en verso. Cold wax mixed into oil paint thickens it and gives a matte, layered surface that can be scraped back to reveal the colors underneath. Here a pale ochre sky fills the upper half, scraped and mottled into soft clouds. Below, a terra-cotta plain stretches flat to the edges, with a crimson and orange mass rising at the left like brush on a hillside. The square panel is unframed. It is 16 inches wide and 16 high.

The desert, reduced to its temperature.