The Black Fire

The Black Fire by kyle parker cunningham

A painting created in response to the Black Fire in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness during the spring of 2022. Oil on Linen. Twenty One by Thirty Four Inches. May 2022.

In May of 2022 the Black Fire started near Diamond Creek in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. I was beyond distraught about the burning of this area as it is a place near and close to our hearts. I painted this painting in the first few days of the fire as I watched the daily afternoon plumes blot of the sun and dirty the sky.

Fire is an important and natural part of the ecosystem but the fires we have today are monsters fueled by our changing climate and destructive beyond imagination. They are a reality of our modern world and it is hard to come to terms with the simple fact that I will watch many beloved wilderness burn every year for the rest of my life.

Oil on linen painting of a row of stylized green conifer trees with brown trunks, standing on red-orange scorched earth against a heavily textured gray and white sky with scattered flashes of red and orange suggesting fire and smoke.