Serengeti Dream

Serengeti Dream is pastel on yellow to off-white toned paper. The work is double matted in off white and brown and framed in a mahogany colored frame, which has a gold colored beaded embellishment around the work. The work with frame is 16 inches x 13 x 1/2 inch inches. FAR Tag  #: 267 Serengeti Dream, by Jake Beckman, is a pastel painting of a prairie, or veldt; the sweeping yellow grasslands roll over the landscape. On a hill a stand of trees is backlit by warm colors of the late day. Clouds roll in, portending a storm as the sun sets. The colors of the pastel are purple, orange, yellow, brown, and black.

I have long lived in the American West. The skies are unusually dramatic out here where we can see mile of miles, especially during the monsoon. There are parts of Colorado, California, Texas and even Arizona with rolling hills covered in a down of dry grass. I can imagine that critters from the veldt would be quite happy on these hills at least when the weather is warm. Once fall and winter roll in these high dry plains get rather chilly. I am not so sure that wildebeest and hyenas would do as well in winter hereabouts, but there are several "Out of Africa"-type wildlife preserves in California and even one here in Arizona, so maybe a dusting of snow doesn't bother lions as much as one might think. Serengeti dream is partly derived from my reality and partly from my imagination where my dream of Africa dwells.-Jake