California artist Merv Corning depicted his home state in many of his works. The mountains in the background of this piece look like the vertical granite faces that are common throughout the high Sierra Mountain Range in California. Many of these formations are found in the high valleys formed from glacier activity during the last ice age. Corning produced several small watercolor studies such as this one for Westways Magazine, a magazine produced by the Automobile Club of Southern California for AAA members that celebrates travel, food, and life in Southern California. Corning's work was featured in this magazine numerous times.