
Good morning everyone. Well, I must admit that I was quite pleased with the way I painted this acrylic of the hot, dry desert. As you might know, it is another of the projects in the Learn to Paint Academy course I am following. And the photo was taken by Rod Moore (our tutor) when he took a trip into the outback. Apparently, the temperature was rising to 44° on that particular afternoon! So, it really is a good job that I don’t live in Australia. Because I would just melt into a small puddle!
Home in the Hot, Dry Desert.

As I hope you can see, the heat was positively bouncing off the corrugated iron roof. And this derelict old house with chimney, stove and veranda must have provided a refuge from the heat for someone. Actually, I enjoyed painting this scene- it was something different for me, living as I do in rainy Britain. In fact, trying to put some perspective in that expanse of sand was quite a challenge. And when I added the dense areas of shade around the house it was very satisfying.
A Camel – Ship of the Desert?

Now, quite by chance, I painted this in gouache paint a couple of weeks ago for my Beginner Gouache group on Mewe. As the theme for the month was Egypt, I chose a photo of a camel and the handler. And they were waiting for tourists who, after a tour of the pyramid site, were eager for a ride into the hot, dry desert.
Obviously, I cropped the photo right down to get a quirky view of the animal. And then, just to complicate matters, I set myself the challenge of painting in an abstract style. To explain, I would treat each shape as a separate block of colour and texture. And, hopefully, I would not distort the sense of the image too much. Just an artistic experiment!
Have a look at this post here to see a different type of desert – “Drylands” , more of a science fiction scene, really.
Great painting of the desert Margaret I’ve been in the outback and you have captured the clear light and feeling of heat.
Thank you so much. I’m glad it looks authentic- we have a great tutor.
Wow! I like both of these but I think the house is a knockout. You do convey the sense of heat and intensity so well. Also loneliness.
Thank you, Claudia. The photo was fab and that helped a lot. And I did think about the loneliness as I was painting so it must have come across.