Pastel Drawings:
Learning to Paint the Desert

Pelton was primarily a studio painter, but after moving West, plein-air or outdoor painting and pastel drawing became a regular practice. Her use of chalk pastels provided a broad range of colors to define composition and form in her drawings, and her sketches created outdoors served as a visual reference when painting in her studio. 

In the following quote from 1943, Pelton describes one of her sketching trips:
This morning I went up the little near canyon where the Encelia are all in bloom against the dark rocky hill. I took pastels and a stool only, and sat among the mounds of pure gold above the cushions of pale green—I made a small sketch and was so glad to be able to be there. . . Now it is warmer I shall get up early and by taking the stool I can get to some of the nearer places and I hope learn to paint the desert—in less strenuous way than I have before, with big canvases and all the heavy things.

My Cabin, 1941-1942, oil on canvas, 20 1/2 × 18 1/2 inches. Collection of Kirk and Linda Edgar, L2020.13.1.

Pelton’s cabin on Thomas Mountain was located about 35 miles west in the Santa Rosa Mountains near Mount San Jacinto. This painting is dedicated to her friends Claude and Edna Cobb who operated the first store and post office in Cathedral City and built this cabin that Pelton bought in 1941. The Cobbs also owned a date ranch in Coachella Valley, inspiring Pelton’s painting Seeds of Date. Pelton did not have a car and relied on friends like the Cobbs to drive her to various places. When Pelton died at the age of 79, her ashes were scattered near her mountain cabin.