High Desert, High Noon (2025) Original Collage by Dave Popino

This triptych depicts an abstract and stylized desert scene inspired by a few trips out to Virginia City, Nevada. It features a rugged landscape with rolling hills and mountains dominating the mid and foreground, with a suggestion of a vast expanse under a bright blue sky. It uses a warm, earthy palette dominated by various shades of brown, rust, gold, and deep reddish-orange, reflecting the colors of desert rock and soil. The different sections of the landscape are built up with overlapping pieces of torn paper, giving the mountains a dynamic, geological look.

The three panels are united by a continuous landscape that flows across the breaks. The foreground is darker and more heavily textured, leading the eye back to the lighter, more distant hills. The intense light suggested by the glowing golds and the deep shadows emphasizes the dry heat of midday in a high-altitude desert environment. The collage style enhances the feeling of dryness, cracked earth, and the layered geology of the desert.

Materials used:

Fine Art Papers; Stretched Canvas Panels; Mod Podge; Wood

Details:

• Collage on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 114.3 x 45.72 x 3.81cm / 114.3 x 45.72cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Impressionistic
• Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky