Ed Mell

Ed Mell (born 1942) is an Arizona artist whose angular, almost cubist landscapes have defined a visual language for the Southwestern desert. Born in Phoenix and trained at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, Mell worked as a commercial illustrator in New York before returning to Arizona in the 1970s to paint full-time. His paintings — with their dramatic cloudbursts, cactus silhouettes, and blocky mesa formations — fuse art deco geometry with the palette of the Sonoran Desert. His work has been exhibited widely in Scottsdale galleries and is held in private and corporate collections throughout the country.