April is Desertscapes Month

For the second year in a row, the City of Palm Desert and organizations valley wide are hosting a monthlong tribute to early and contemporary desert artists. The event, known as Desertscapes, takes place in April at venues around the Coachella Valley. For schedules and updates, check back at the soon-to-be-launched website www.Desertscapes.net

A new event this year is an appraisal day. The public is invited to bring in paintings and desert artifacts for an informal opinion from experts. This Desert Roadshow is a great opportunity to bring in those old artworks stashed under your bed. Watch the schedule for details.

The groundbreaking inaugural event in 2010 helped to establish that the Coachella Valley has a distinct place in California art history and its very own style of art: The Smoketree School. Top painters who lived and painted in the desert include Maynard Dixon, Jimmy Swinnerton, Carl Eytel, John Hilton, Agnes Pelton and dozens more. The early desert artists scouted the canyons by mule, jeep and jalopy. Seeing beauty where others had seen only a wasteland, they were some of the earliest conservationists of the desert land

The mission of Desertscapes 2011 is to promote and educate the public about the early painters, as well as contemporary landscape painters in and around the Coachella Valley. Desertscapes is a Valleywide collaboration of major arts and community organizations, including the City of Palm Desert, the Living Desert, the Palm Springs Art Museum, Walter M. Marks Center for the Arts, the Coachella Valley Watercolor Society and others.

Come discover a favorite early painter, meet a modern desert artist or paint a smoketree of your own. Become part of the renaissance of desert art.

For more information contact Deborah Schwartz, City of Palm Desert Public Art Coordinator, at (760) 837-1664 or dschwartz@cityofpalmdesert.org. Or see www.Desertscapes.net