Lighting Strikes the Catalina Mountains, Tucson

by Chance Kafka

Original - Sold

Price

$299

Dimensions

24.000 x 12.000 x 0.500 inches

Title

Lighting Strikes the Catalina Mountains, Tucson

Artist

Chance Kafka

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

This panoramic southwest landscape painting features a rainy downpour and lightning strikes over the Santa Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson, Arizona. In the late summer months, violent thunderstorms often whip in from the east or southeast, dumping buckets of rain with loads of thunder and lightning. They are particularly colorful at sunset, with shades of pink, magenta, red, blue and burnt orange making there way through the mist, and the moisture from these storms aides in the lushness of the Sonoran Desert.

From this perspective, we see the Pusch Ridge, a collection of spiny mountain peaks of the southwest portion of the Catalinas that are the most noticeable from the heart of Tucson. On the left is Pusch Peak, followed by Bighorn Peak with cumulonimbus thunderheads behind it, Finger Rock and Mount Kimball both being struck by lightning, and Window Peak (also known as Ventana which is Spanish for "window) is obscured by the rain. In the foreground, stately saguaro cacti soak in the last light of day from the setting sun, as a hiking trail veers off between a prickly pear and barrel cactus.

Summer in Tucson and southern Arizona can be quite miserable at best and deadly at worst due to its extreme heat. But the storms that can brew in July and August offer a reprieve and unparalleled natural beauty. I hoped to convey the excitement and drama of an approaching storm, as well as the colorful, atmospheric effects of sunset, all mixed with the sunlight of golden hour on the landscape. There is nothing quite like the smell of rain, rumbles of thunder and sudden flashes of lightning to end a hot day in the desert.

I felt a panorama painting would best showcase the scale of the peaks of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness.

Uploaded

August 4th, 2020

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