Mr. Blackburn’s work in Canyon Country bred his fascination with the incredible diversity and unearthly beauty of the southwestern desert landscapes. His paintings reveal an intimacy with the mountains and deserts, over which he literally has crawled, staking claims and prospecting for gold, silver and uranium. An avid and able skier, the artist loves the alpine and desert landscapes, and his work captures their beauty in all their seasonal variety. The geological marvels of the Great Basin and desert Southwest truly have captured him.

“While my friends were wearing suits and hunkered down in offices, I was lucky enough to spend years exploring in Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming,” he relates with a wry smile.

Blackburn’s work is collected by celebrities and hangs in the White House in Washington, D.C. His work even appeared on network television in the hit series “Murder, She Wrote,” starring Angela Lansbury.

Perhaps Mr. Blackburn’s long experience prospecting has honed his perceptive eye. His intimacy with the vast desert landscape provides him with an abundant repository of themes for his paintings. His incredibly detailed paintings take hundreds of hours to paint and reveal an eye keen to see every nuance of the landscape. Mr. Blackburn graciously has made some of the works available as affordable giclée prints.