The Magic of the Desert

Canyons erupting from the earth. Cotton candy clouds looming over sunbaked cacti. Cowboys defying gravity, their weathered hands gripping the reins as their horses catapult them into the air. To landscape artist Josh Gibson, the desert Southwest is a powerful place.

“It seems like, in terms of the geological formations and the kind of weather, there just aren’t other places that have that sort of thing going on,” he says. “The sunsets every day are a 10 out of 10. There are mountains that are huge blocks of rock coming out of very desolate desert plains. I haven’t really seen anywhere else on the planet that looks like that.”

Gibson can’t recall a time in his life when he wasn’t drawing and painting. Growing up in Tucson, Arizona, he admits he took his surroundings for granted. But, as he got older, he began to explore every corner of the state. That’s when the magic of the desert struck him.

Read the full article in the November/December 2025 issue.