Sierra Madre

I met Luis at his home high in the Sierra Mountains of the Baja Peninsula, Mexico. He had irrigated a small alpine valley by drawing water from a small seep spring he had discovered there, and for forty years planted and tended a wide variety of fruit trees and a small vegetable garden. It did not take very long in his company for me to realize he was very much a part of his surroundings, and I began to think he wore the mountains themselves upon his face. This singular impression is what directed the painting and its name, Sierra Madre.