I’ve always known that the American West was big. But coming from Germany (where everything is quite densly populated) I did not really know what “big” meant. Not until we took a roadtrip from San Diego to Minneapolis. We had 5 days, and had to travel 10-15 hours each day to make it. That’s how huge the US (and it’s desert) really are!

Despite the rush, we still managed to see some amazing landscapes, such as this canyon in Utah. It really is called “Devil’s Canyon”, and it is, like everything else, huge: those specks of color on the road are actually big semi-trucks winding their way through the slopes.

I took the photo back to Germany and completed the painting 2 months later. It’s about 75x55cm (2′ 6″x 1’10”) and is done on brown-package paper.