“Cosmic Trails,” 2025

“Cosmic Trails,” 2025
Gouache on Cold Press
4 x 6 inches

“Cosmic Trails" is an intimate yet expansive vision of the American West where the familiar frontier landscape is illuminated by celestial mysteries. In this 4x6” gouache miniature a driver and his shotgunner sit reclined against the wheel of a weathered stagecoach, their gazes fixed on the luminous spiral unfolding in the night sky. Their relaxed postures suggest an acceptance of the unknown, a quiet contemplation rather than fear, as though they have stumbled upon a secret written in the heavens. The wagon, rendered in warm ochres and deep browns, anchors the scene in the tangible past, its lantern casting a soft, reassuring glow.

The midground unfolds with the arid, rugged terrain characteristic of Maynard Dixon’s sweeping Western vistas—low mesas and rocky outcroppings bathed in twilight’s fading warmth. Dry grasses and earth tones reinforce the solitude of the frontier, a land as unforgiving as it is majestic. Yet, above this grounded realism, the background erupts into a dreamlike spectacle: swirling cosmic trails spiral outward, a mesmerizing vortex of violet, lilac and dusky rose. White speckles and gestural strokes evoke a sky alive with energy, blurring the boundary between the physical and the metaphysical. The juxtaposition of these elements, solid earth and ephemeral light, cements the painting within a surrealist and speculative artistic tradition where time and space collapse into poetic abstraction.

The dominant hues of purple and gold create a rich, hypnotic contrast, with the sky’s cool celestial tones complementing the land’s warm, earthen palette. The lighting, though subtle, is dynamic. The stagecoach’s lantern offers a human-scaled warmth, while the cosmic display suggests a higher, almost divine illumination. The emotion of the piece is one of awe and quiet discovery; the drivers, symbols of rugged individualism, find themselves mere spectators to the grand unknown. Like Dixon’s Regionalist vision, Cosmic Trails captures the vastness of the Western experience, yet it also leans toward the uncanny, reminding us that even in the most open landscapes there are mysteries beyond reckoning.