Every artist has a painting that feels like a door opening. For me, that door was Enchantment. I painted it in watercolor in the early 1990s while living in New Jersey, far from the red rocks of Arizona, but deeply drawn to Sedona’s 1st light. At the time, I was still learning how to listen to a subject and let the medium speak. Sedona’s glow was new to me then—golden yet cool, tender yet immense—and watercolor turned out to be the perfect way to chase it across the paper.
The process of Enchantment was less about control and more about trust. I floated warm washes into the sky and allowed them to settle into soft gradations. Layer upon layer, I carved the rocks with glazes so the forms held their glow without losing delicacy. Each brushstroke was both an experiment and a lesson. I was only a few years into painting, but something clicked with this piece. People responded to it in a way I hadn’t experienced before. They felt the pull of Sedona through the image, as if the desert horizon itself was speaking to them.
The original Enchantment eventually found a home with a collector, but the painting has endured as one of my biggest sellers—especially in panorama sizes. Collectors often choose it for spaces where they want to evoke calm energy, such as over fireplaces, in entryways, or in offices that need grounding. It doesn’t rely on spectacle; it relies on resonance. Enchantment became proof that a painting doesn’t have to shout to be remembered. It just has to hold a feeling long enough for the viewer to recognize it.
Looking back, I can see how this watercolor laid the foundation for everything that followed. Oil painting would later teach me patience and polish, as in Cathedral Moon, with its luminous stillness under a full moon. Fluorescent acrylics would eventually teach me how to paint with light itself in works like Coyote’s Lunar Serenade, Devil’s Bridge, and Tequila Sunrise. But Enchantment taught me trust—trust in layers, trust in restraint, trust that Sedona’s landscapes could carry a feeling across distance.
Collectors often tell me Enchantment makes them breathe a little deeper. That might be the best measure of success for a landscape. It means the painting isn’t just showing a place; it’s sharing a pace, a way of being. And that’s what I most want my work to do: offer not only an image, but an atmosphere.
Enchantment also sits within the broader story of my “Top Nine” collection. While later works embrace bold fluorescent palettes, hidden hearts, and black light transformations, this watercolor remains an anchor. It carries the same reverence, but in a quieter language. It’s the whisper before the song, the steady hand before the experiment, the patient beginning before the luminous glow.
Ultimately, Enchantment is both a beginning and a promise: that the language of light, handled with care, can keep speaking for decades. It’s a reminder that even early works have the power to set a course. For me, this watercolor, created as a panorama, was proof that I was on the right path. It was the painting that told me: keep going.
Explore Enchantment and the full Top Nine collection here: https://sedonaartstudios.com