When your curator drives a 4×4 pickup truck and carries a can of bug spray in her pocket, you know you’re not at your average painting event.
That’s life at the Borrego Springs Plein Air Invitational — and this year’s 20th anniversary edition delivered everything the Anza-Borrego Desert had to offer. Late winter rains had blessed the valley with a stunning wildflower bloom, warm days, and one unavoidable side effect: gnats. Lots of gnats. Sixteen invited artists showed up anyway, easels and stamped canvases in hand, ready to spend five days painting 600,000 acres of rugged desert landscape.
The week unfolded the way the best plein air events do — with early mornings, long days in the field, and the particular intensity that comes from working on location against the clock and the light. Each day opened with vivid desert sunrises and closed with paintings going up on the gallery walls. Sales began almost immediately. A full moon and a lunar eclipse added unexpected subject matter to the already dramatic landscape, while Thursday and Friday sent artists fanning out across the desert to interpret running creeks, dry washes, towering boulders, badlands, mountains, and fields of wildflowers in their own creative styles.
Wednesday brought a Quick Draw at Rams Hill Golf Club, where expansive views of the valley and badlands — plus picturesque water features, rocks, and blooming shrubs — gave artists an hour and a half to work.
Five days of intense painting culminated Friday evening at turn-in, when artists were required to hang six to nine pieces for jurying. New Mexico artist and juror Natasha Isenhour, surveying a show she described as having an almost palpable excitement to it, praised the mix of artistic styles and the overall quality of work on display.
Then came the surprise.
In a field dominated by oil painters, Isenhour awarded first place to a watercolor. Geoffrey Allen’s Lesson Number One stopped her in her tracks for its composition, its handling of the medium, and above all its understanding of light. “That guy can paint,” Isenhour said simply. “He truly understands light.”
It was a fitting outcome for an event that has always been about seeing — really seeing — one of the most demanding and beautiful landscapes in the American Southwest. Allen’s watercolor, luminous and quietly assured, made the case that the medium is every bit the equal of oil when the painter knows what he’s doing.
