Spring in the Sonoran Desert is replete with beauty, but among the most memorable sights is a Palo Verde tree in full bloom. Their bright, acid yellow flowers seem to glow from within, and if there has been an especially wet winter, the entire landscape can come alive as a sea of gold. But as the blooming period concludes, there is a brief moment when the ground is carpeted in fallen petals, and the shadows of the trees cast wonderful fractal patterns across this surface in mysterious shades of violet. I was inspired by that sight to create a series of four small studies. In initial sketches, I included a bit of the base of the trunk from each tree in the compositions, but ultimately decided that the concept was stronger without any obvious contextualization. For anyone initially confused as to what they are looking at (which is intentional) there are scatterings of rocks and fallen twigs on the ground surfaces as clues for the viewer. Though challenging, I enjoyed working my way through this mini-series, and it feels likely that one or more of them may inspire a larger work in the future.