While you would think this lake got it's name just for it's "pleasing" cool expanse of water in the desert, no, actually, it was named for Carl Pleasant, the engineer who designed the Carl Pleasant Dam completed in 1927, at the time the world's largest multi-arch dam. The dam has been rebuilt and renamed several times over the years, but happily Carl still has his name on the lake, even though with a name like that, he doesn't currently get credit in anyone's mind unless they go to wikipedia, I guess. It is strange to see this lake as you come over a saguaro dotted landscape of brown rock and dirt, scrub and cacti, but it's beautiful to behold in this heat, I promise. This small painting was made when the water level was a little low, down the bank from the about Campsite 128, facing east in one of the quiet little coves beside the Desert Tortoise Campground at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. Another fun fact about this lake is that it is fed by both the Colorado and the Agua Fria Rivers, and the two reservoirs they fill and refill supply a lot of the water for the greater Phoenix area, which is serviced by an elaborate series of canals. Interestingly, a canal system was also used by the earliest known inhabitants of the region. The Hohokam were the only culture in North America to rely on irrigation canals to supply water to their crops. In the arid desert environment of the Salt and Gila River Valleys, the homeland of the Hohokam, there was not enough rainfall to grow crops. To meet their needs, the Hohokam engineered the largest and most sophisticated irrigation system in the Americas apparently about 2000 years bc.
The canals were perfectly laid out on the landscape to achieve a downhill drop (or gradient) of 1 to 2 feet per mile. Many of the canals were massive in size. The Arizona Museum of Natural History discovered a prehistoric canal at the north end of Dobson Road in Mesa that measured 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide. Irrigating up to 110,000 acres by AD 1300, the Hohokam irrigation systems supported the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest. All of which is to say, as I stand before my easel, under the limited shade of a honey mesquite, painting this vivid water, I do feel the ages in the worn river rocks under my sandals.
While building up what seem like unlikely green and blue colors in the desert, I feel the breeze off the water, imagine being even a little cooler under the leaves at the water's edge, and I'm hearing the calls and anticipating a sighting of the wild burros I know are roaming nearby. (The word “burro” is derived from the Spanish word “borrico,” meaning donkey.) Today, most of America's wild burros reside in Arizona, where they have been present since 1679 when Jesuit priest Padre Eusebion Kino brought them to the Spanish mission at San Xavier del Bac near what is now Tucson. It is their descendants who like this lake and raise their burro families here now. When this painting came home and I saw how bright it's blues and greens and the sweet pinks in the frothy flowers of the salt cedar (aka tamarisk properly tamarix ramosissima over my shoulder, I decided it had the smell and feel of the place that day. Can't wait to go back.
While you would think this lake got it's name just for it's "pleasing" cool expanse of water in the desert, no, actually, it was named for Carl Pleasant, the engineer who designed the Carl Pleasant Dam completed in 1927, at the time the world's largest multi-arch dam. The dam has been rebuilt and renamed several times over the years, but happily Carl still has his name on the lake, even though with a name like that, he doesn't currently get credit in anyone's mind unless they go to wikipedia, I guess. It is strange to see this lake as you come over a saguaro dotted landscape of brown rock and dirt, scrub and cacti, but it's beautiful to behold in this heat, I promise. This small painting was made when the water level was a little low, down the bank from the about Campsite 128, facing east in one of the quiet little coves beside the Desert Tortoise Campground at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. Another fun fact about this lake is that it is fed by both the Colorado and the Agua Fria Rivers, and the two reservoirs they fill and refill supply a lot of the water for the greater Phoenix area, which is serviced by an elaborate series of canals. Interestingly, a canal system was also used by the earliest known inhabitants of the region. The Hohokam were the only culture in North America to rely on irrigation canals to supply water to their crops. In the arid desert environment of the Salt and Gila River Valleys, the homeland of the Hohokam, there was not enough rainfall to grow crops. To meet their needs, the Hohokam engineered the largest and most sophisticated irrigation system in the Americas apparently about 2000 years bc.
The canals were perfectly laid out on the landscape to achieve a downhill drop (or gradient) of 1 to 2 feet per mile. Many of the canals were massive in size. The Arizona Museum of Natural History discovered a prehistoric canal at the north end of Dobson Road in Mesa that measured 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide. Irrigating up to 110,000 acres by AD 1300, the Hohokam irrigation systems supported the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest. All of which is to say, as I stand before my easel, under the limited shade of a honey mesquite, painting this vivid water, I do feel the ages in the worn river rocks under my sandals.
While building up what seem like unlikely green and blue colors in the desert, I feel the breeze off the water, imagine being even a little cooler under the leaves at the water's edge, and I'm hearing the calls and anticipating a sighting of the wild burros I know are roaming nearby. (The word “burro” is derived from the Spanish word “borrico,” meaning donkey.) Today, most of America's wild burros reside in Arizona, where they have been present since 1679 when Jesuit priest Padre Eusebion Kino brought them to the Spanish mission at San Xavier del Bac near what is now Tucson. It is their descendants who like this lake and raise their burro families here now. When this painting came home and I saw how bright it's blues and greens and the sweet pinks in the frothy flowers of the salt cedar (aka tamarisk properly tamarix ramosissima over my shoulder, I decided it had the smell and feel of the place that day. Can't wait to go back.
#175 - Acylic on Canvas Birch Board
Painting 12” x 8.75”
In Frame: 19" x 16"
