LIGHT, AIR, AND COLOR 



93 



the sky, mixed with something of local color in 

 the background, and also complementary color. 

 It is usually blue or lilac-blue, on snow for ex- 

 ample, when there is a blue sky overhead ; and 

 lilac when shown upon sand or a blue stone 

 road. Perhaps it does not appear often on the 

 Mojave-Colorado because the surfaces are too 

 rough and broken with coarse gravel to make 

 good reflectors of the sky. The fault is not in 

 the light or in the sky, for upon the fine sands 

 of the dunes, and upon beds of fine gypsum 

 and salt, you can see your own shadow colored 

 an absolute indigo ; and often upon bowlders of 

 white quartz the shadows of cholla and grease- 

 wood are cast in almost cobalt hues. 



All color local, reflected, translucent, com- 

 plementary is, of course, made possible by 

 light and has no existence apart from it. 

 Through the long desert day the sunbeams are 

 weaving skeins of color across the sands, along 

 the sides of the canyons, and about the tops of 

 the mountains. They stain the ledges of cop- 

 per with turquoise, they burn the buttes to a 

 terra-cotta red, they paint the sands with rose 

 and violet, and they key the air to the hue of 

 the opal. The reek of color that splashes the 

 western sky at sunset is but the climax of the 



Slue shad- 

 ows upon 

 salt-beds. 



How light 

 makes color 



