Desert Smoke Tree, 1951, oil on board, 29 3/4 x 36, signed lower right: Knox Thomas '51, Thomas’ landscape scene illustrates a decidedly Southwest space, as announced by desert plants and dry terrain. With a compositional arrangement highly unorthodox for landscapes, Thomas’ foregrounded plant life appears to be taller than the mountain it frames. That unique viewpoint is revealing of either playfulness on the part of the artist, or Thomas’ interest in the manipulation of perspective. If interpreted as a visually hierarchical arrangement, the viewer may understand the plants to be more significant to the artist than the mountains, despite their transience and the mountain’s steadfastness. Unfortunately, little biographical information about Thomas has been written.