Alabama Hills, California Travel Wall Art

An illustrated Alabama Hills California poster shot through a natural rock arch. The weathered orange-brown span fills the top corners of the frame, and through the opening the snow-covered Sierra Nevada crest rises in hard vertical buttresses above the Owens Valley floor. Rounded granite boulders, pink decomposed sand and low grey-green sage fill the foreground on both sides of the gap.

About the artwork

Painted in a dense illustrative style, with the rock built from carved, directional strokes rather than flat vector blocks. The palette moves from rust, sienna and deep brown in the arch, through blue-shadowed granite and pale cream snow on the peaks, to olive scrub and dusty rose sand at the bottom. The sky is a flat deep teal that pushes the white summits forward. Note the layered valley behind, painted in receding bands of grey-green. The title sits in white capitals across the lower edge, ALABAMA HILLS above CALIFORNIA. Portrait, 2:3.

Why you'll love it

• The arch does the composing. The rock frames the Sierra crest the way photographers use Mobius Arch at dawn, so the print already has a window built into it.
• Two landscapes at once. High desert boulder field in front, alpine snow behind — the contrast that makes this stretch of the Eastern Sierra famous.
• Film history in the rocks. The Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine have stood in for the American West and half a dozen other planets since the 1920s.
• Warm palette, cool focal point. Terracotta surround with a white and blue centre, so the eye goes straight through the opening.

Sizes and materials

• Paper — archival matte, rolled and unframed. Nine sizes from 8" x 12" to 30" x 40", plus A4-A1 for European frames.
• Matte canvas — stretched on a wooden bar, no glare, ready to hang.
• Framed canvas — solid wood floating frame in white, black, espresso or natural.
• Pigment-based archival inks, rated to resist fading for decades indoors.

Styling it at home

Rust and sage make this an easy fit for rooms with leather, jute and unpainted wood. Against a warm white wall the arch reads almost sculptural, as in the arched alcove shot above; on a clay or dark olive wall the snow line becomes the only bright thing in the room, which is a strong effect over a console or a desk. Natural oak or espresso frames suit the rock tones better than white.

Shipping and care

Unframed prints ship rolled in a protective tube. Framed canvas arrives ready to hang. Keep prints out of direct sunlight to protect the colour, and dust canvas with a dry, soft cloth.

Questions people ask

What size should I get? 16" x 24" works beside a desk or in a hallway. Above a sofa or bed, 24" x 36" keeps the ridge detail on the Sierra crest legible. 30" x 40" turns the arch into a real window.

Does it come framed? Paper and matte canvas ship unframed. Framed canvas arrives in a solid wood floating frame in white, black, espresso or natural, ready to hang.

What does the poster say? The printed text reads ALABAMA HILLS with CALIFORNIA beneath it, in white capitals across the bottom. There is no other lettering.

Is this in the state of Alabama? No. Despite the name, the Alabama Hills are in California — a boulder field on Bureau of Land Management land just west of Lone Pine in the Owens Valley, below Mount Whitney. The name came from a Confederate warship, borrowed by local miners in the 1860s. Alabama-state prints are listed separately.