Esthetic aspects of the desert, an outline

              24691
Esthetic Aspects of the Desert, An Outline
By Carl D. Duncan, Chairman, Division of Natural Sciences
San Jose State College-1952
Revised - Fall, 1964

Imagery
Shortage of water - drying winds forbidding wastes of sand
and rocks.
Also strange appeal - lure - spell - charm - fascination -
strange hold on men's hearts and minds and souls.
What constitutes this appeal?
Form, line, proportion - masses
Line reveals and expresses form.
Line is the fundamental basis on which all beauty of form rests
Lines of an automobile, plane, racing yacht, horse, bird, well-
proportioned human form, a suit of clothes, or a frock.
If lines are not good no embellishment can conceal the lack of
beauty of form in anything.
Line and form revealed in the desert are the resultants of
economical and harmonious resolution of the natural forces
that shape the desert: wind,water, sunshine, erosion
and deposition, and crustal movements.
Harmonious resolution of forces results in beauty of line and
form and no beauty of form exists without it.
Symmetry of valleys, basins fans, mountains, trees, shrubs, flowers, etc.
Symmetry of individual plants results from, their isolation and
spacing that permits them to respond equally to stimuli from all
directions.
Balance Mass against mass - area against area - form against form.
Vast areas of gentle sweeping contour are relieved by small
masses which are the remnants of mountains.
Agreeable proportions exist in most features of desert landscapes.
Gently concave surfaces of alluvial fans provide the long,
sweeping, restful profiles of most gentle slopes that
reach out from bordering mountains to meet in the inter-
vening valleys and basins.
Landscape in the nude.
Color - delicate to flamboyant
Color schemes are pleasing if there is a blend of scaled hues
or harmonious or satisfying contrasts.
True in clothes, houses, boats, public buildings, paintings, etc.
The desert has both scaled hues and contrasts.
Wide range of hues in both related series and contrasts.
All harmonized by tempering effects of sun and atmosphere.
all pastelled, grayed, approximated in intensities and values.
Only striking contrasts are in green of new foliage of mesquite,
creosote bush and other plants. Green is restful color.
Brilliant colorinig of individual flowers and masses of
flowers.
These are always keyed to and harmonious with the
foliage of the plants that bear them and the colors
of soil and rocks that constitute the setting in which
the flowers bloom.
Sunset and sunrise flamboyance
Sunset colors suffuse and are reflected from the mountains
and valley slopes.
Sunset colors are picked up and enriched by atmospheric
haze.
Complements of sunset colors are given out in shadows.
Rhythmic repetition .
Succession of mountain beyond mountain regularly weakened,by
haze give both rhythm and scaled hues and intensity vaiues.
Succession of dunes and alluvial fans. 
Spaced trees and shrubs marching up alluvial fans or into the
distance are highly rhythmic and satisfying.
Suggestion of movement
Long gently curving slopes
Leading one into another
Leading on and on and on
Lost in distance and back again
Gradual reduction in apparent , size of similar objects with
increasing distance. The element of "vanishing point
perspective." '
Sense of Completeness 
Wholeness - belongingness of interrelation
All encompassing
Comparable to viewing the heavens at night
Grandeur, serenity, repose greets one in every direction
Something humbling, ennobling, satisfying results from the 
realization of one's place in natural setting
In recognition of fact that man must bend with and adjust to
the elements but that he can trust the elements if he so does.
In some measure -- all who spend considerable time in the desert and
look beyond themselves sense these things, even when they know not what
they are sensing. All feel the esthetic appeal of the desert.