A member of the Transcendental Painting Group founded in New Mexico in the 1930s, Agnes Pelton pursued spiritual and philosophical meanings through abstraction based in nature. According to its manifesto, the group aimed “to carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, color, light and design, to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual.”

Pelton painted Sand Storm shortly after moving to the small desert town of Cathedral City, California. The rhythmic shapes of the painting suggest a mystical quality to nature, as experienced through an intense weather event.