WHITNEY GARDNER
SOLD
Lost Trail
10 × 12 in
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Whitney Gardner
Death Valley is a study in extremes, but Whitney Gardner finds the hush between them—the quiet just before heat lifts, the soft shadow that drifts across salt flats, the rose-violet fade that makes a ridge appear weightless.
In this new body of work, she follows those gentler intervals: pearled dawns, wind-sanded slopes, moon-bright nights. Her language is spare and sure—confident planes, distilled silhouettes, edges that breathe—so the space itself can carry the feeling. You sense the air changing temperature; you hear the pause.
Gardner paints from the Mojave, where she lives and works, and the discipline shows. These aren’t postcards; they’re measured, modern paintings built on close looking and a deep respect for light. That rigor—and her unmistakable sense of calm—has drawn wide attention in recent years, including features in Western Art & Architecture and Southwest Art, alongside coverage of her studio practice and market momentum.
The Death Valley paintings extend that trajectory while staying true to Whit’s roots: solitude without loneliness, clarity without hardness. Stand near them and let your eyes adjust. Notice how temperature carries time of day; how a mineral pink becomes evening; how a scar of shadow turns a flat into a mountain. The desert rewards anyone willing to slow down. These works do the same—and in doing so, they offer a tender read on one of the West’s most formidable landscapes.
