The Sonorran Desert, OUCH!

Boy howdy!  Cactus, dry washes and horny toads!  Betts finally drug me down to Arizona.  Now that we've been we will have to go back.  Thought I was on Mars.  Never saw such a hostile land.  Don't wanna walk around the desert at night.  Everything has stickers! and I mean serious stickers.  Even the critters have stickers!
But I gotta say that the sunsets were stunning, the sugauros (suharros) were cool.  They look like people.  old too.  you can tell the age of a suguaro by counting the arms, multiplying by 5 and adding 75.  many of them over 100 yrs old.
Weren't many birds for Bett's to watch as they are all down south.  Rivers go underground and lawns are made out of rock.  Needless to say, not much for fishin'.  Didn't even see a deer, antelope or elk.  Not even any road kill.
Phoenix is the land of freeways but they're probably the most artistic in the nation.  wonderful mosaic abutments.  the aesthetics are cool but gotta watch out for the drivers. no one uses turn signals and they all drive fast.  even the boulevards are 4 lane and speed limit is 40 although the school zones are 15mph.  I guess it's such a new town that they could lay it out for the automobile. 

Sedona was way cool.  built under a red rock mountain and surrounded by more.  We stayed at the Orchard Inn and I painted red rock mesa's from the balcony. 
Checked out the Cowboy Museum in Wickenberg and the Phippen in Prescot.  Learned that Phippen was a cowboy artist and he and Joe Beeler and a couple others started the Cowboy Artists Assc.,  He was the first president but died the next year.  Also met Maureen (Moe) Husberg at the Biltmore Galleries in Scottsdale.  Moe grew up in Sedona and knew all the 'greats' that painted there.  Her father was a painter and owned a gallery way before the place got discovered.  The Biltmore collection is a must.  www.biltmoregalleries.com All the great painters and more.  They had some great russian pieces as well as painters like Maynard Dixon.  The Scottsdale art walk on Thursdays, is big.  Hard to see it all in a day. 

We look forward to going back.  I hope to get into the Sonoma Plein Air Festival in the fall and have fun painting the red rocks around their. 
Also, a shout out to Eric Bowman.  Found a wonderful piece "Order Up" in the Bonner David Gallery in Scottsdale.  Way to go Eric!  He has a one man show there in April if you are in the area.