One of the things I love most about painting desert landscapes is how dramatically the light changes throughout the day.

In my earlier piece Cacti Constellations, I explored the idea of the desert at night — glowing cactus forms standing beneath a sky full of stars. The response to that piece was incredibly encouraging, and it made me curious about how far I could push the idea of light in this series.

With Cacti & Cosmos, I wanted to experiment with that concept a little further.

Instead of a full night scene, I chose to place the landscape at sunset, in that quiet moment when the sky still holds warmth from the day but the stars are beginning to appear. Arizona sunsets have always fascinated me. The colors can shift so quickly — soft gold and peach tones fading into cooler blues as evening arrives.

For this piece, I kept most of the neon-style lighting focused toward the front of the scene, where the barrel cacti glow with warm pinks and greens. The saguaros rise behind them, illuminated more subtly, while the desert hills catch the last light of the fading day.

That balance between warm dusk tones and luminous cactus forms helped bring a different mood to the Neon Desert series.

It still carries the playful glow and bold color that I enjoy exploring, but the sunset palette adds a feeling of warmth and calm that feels very true to evenings in the Arizona desert.

I also love the quiet contrast in this scene — the grounded, familiar shapes of saguaros against a sky filled with stars. The desert can feel both vast and intimate at the same time, and I wanted this piece to capture a little of that feeling.

Cacti & Cosmos continues my exploration of imagining the desert landscape in unexpected colors and lighting. It’s part of my ongoing search for ways to bring a little more glow, warmth, and playfulness into familiar desert forms.

If you’d like to explore the full artwork and available print formats, you can view Cacti & Cosmos here.