The Party's Over (for Me)!

Well, I guess the party's over.

For me, it starts sometime in September as we edge into fall, then it's reinforced by Halloween and Thanksgiving. Then Christmas is the climax of the entire season. And when Christmas is over, I tend to drop into sort of a funk.

All the decorations, the excitement of the fall and Christmas seasons, the music and imagery -- all come to an end. New Years isn't a big deal to me -- I'm not a party-er, and nowadays I don't want to go anywhere on New Years Eve anyway -- there are too many drivers who haven't heard not to drink and drive. If life is survival of the fittest, maybe nights like this select out the humans who just don't get it. Harsh, but true.

There was so much I wanted to get done while doing them at a relaxed pace. Didn't happen. If I want to make any paintings depicting the autumn and Christmas holidays, I probably should paint them during the first 8-9 months of the year and be done by the particular holidays I'm showing.

So I'll begin 2018 thinking about medical and dental procedures that need to be done fairly soon -- YUCK! But I'll continue painting, too, and I may even get some commissions for artwork showing the beautiful Morro Bay, CA and the central California coastline.

Maybe 2018 won't be so bad after all!

www.SouthwestSpaces.com 
www.MarkJunge.com

Here We Are in December!

Well, Christmas is just a few weeks away, and Hanukkah is next week! It's almost time to wrap up another year.

So -- what have I accomplished/

Not much, as it turns out. I'm still running on low energy, and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a painter, I think I'd be content just to stare out the living room window at our little piece of the Mojave Desert.

But I am actually working on a painting! Not very fast, mind you, but I AM working on one.

It's a scene of a place close to where we live, with Joshua trees, spring flowers (it's winter, and here I am working on a spring landscape -- it figures!) with the snow-capped peaks of Mt. San Gorgonio in the background.

I keep changing my mind about how I want the finished painting to look, which makes me stop painting and just look at the painting and think about it. Visualizing it in my head.

But it is coming along, and I should finish it this month. And then? Another landscape? A surreal image? A post-apocalyptic nightmare?

Who knows? Let's see how the mood settles when the time comes.

C U L8R!!

Mark Junge
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com