When a Painting Titles Itself

I'm giving away a print of this soft pastel this week and while preparing socials posts and emails for the giveaway, I remembered lightly sketching these yuccas in with a pastel pencil and thinking, "the flower stalks are like those royal guards at Buckingham Palace--these are seriously standing guard over both land and sky. That thought helped direct the painting's progress and dictated the composition of the clouds in relation to the land. Nice when they title themselves, isn't it?! "Standing Guard" is a real place in the high desert, way out in far West Texas ranch country.