Duck Pond

 Well, what th...

I finished a painting a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't written about it yet!! Until now!

Duck Pond (note the two duckies!) is a scene featuring Mount Sneffels in Colorado. It measures 18" x 24" / 45.7cm x 61cm. The mountains are close to what they actually look like; the foreground is a mix of reality and imagination.

The autumn colors tell us this must be mid-late September. The Colorado high country is spectacular at that time, and I miss seeing it.

Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Shoulda Woulda Coulda!!!

Photo of Mt. Sneffels, Colorado, USA

Shoulda Woulda Coulda...

If I WOULDA known that Mt. Sneffels in Colorado was going to become my favorite mountain to paint, I WOULDA spent a lot more time there exploring, taking pictures, sketching, stuff like that. I SHOULDA done that so I COULDA made lots more painting of the place, probably without having to use my imagination as much to fill in the blanks!!

This is one of exactly TWO pictures I took of the rock (on 35mm slide film...this is a scan; the foreground is cropped out). It was mid-September in 1996 or '97 -- autumn colors were at their peak all around us, but not here. Another week or two, and there'd be a lot more zonking yellow. Telluride is on the other side of these mountains and over to the right a bit.

I'm working on a painting of this magical place now. I've never done a painting of the Sneffels Range that I've been really happy with. I hope THIS will be the one! 😊

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Halloween Time!!

Tomorrow night is Halloween!! While I don't go overboard with it, I do enjoy the season and reflect on the sights and experiences I had as a kid on Halloween.

Appropriately enough, I did manage to finish a couple of paintings with a Halloween theme. (If I ever complete the book I have in mind filled with end-of-the-year visions, these two will be in it!)

Ghosts     14" x 11" / 36cm x 28cm

The Morning After        8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

I enjoy painting seasonal images like this when the season is going on, but it's hard to get as much done as I'd like in the time that I have. I need to work on seasonal paintings when it's not the season!

So I hope you have/had a fun Halloween and then you began to reflect on the next holiday -- Thanksgiving!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Fall in the Desert

Fall in the desert?? C'mon -- Joshua trees and saguaro cactus don't offer much in the way of autumn colors!!

But fall colors do happen in desert areas -- one just has to know where to look!

Like -- near places where there's water, or where water may collect under the surface for a while. There you may find cottonwood trees and other smaller shrubs that change in the fall or early winter months.

For example, in early-mid November, cottonwoods in the Owns Valley of California change to a bright golden yellow. No other colors, unfortunately, but they can sure add a whole new look to a desert that may otherwise appear rather drab.

Mt. Whitney                                   8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

For example, this is my latest painting of such an area. It shows the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a bit of the Alabama Hills which are just off to the right, and what I believe is a park in Lone Pine, CA. Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States, is the distant jagged mountain glowing white with snow.

I hope to paint more scenes from this special place sometime soon!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Autumn Equinox -- at Last!!

Autumnal equinox finally arrived today (although the day's almost over as I write this). Autumn is when my world turns into a fantasy land -- fall colors, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. (Once Christmas ends, the magic seems to end, too, and the time that follows is kind of a downer).

I thought I'd celebrate the beginning of this special time by posting images of some autumn paintings by artists I greatly admire.

View of La Crescenza                             Claude Lorraine
Looks like the beginnings of fall in Rome

Nutting                                                    Thomas Moran

Autumn on the Wissahickon                     Thomas Moran

Autumn                                                     Thomas Moran

The Autumnal Woods                  Thomas Moran

Autumn                                                Frederick Edwin Church

Autumn Woods                                                  Albert Bierstadt

Cresheim Glen, Wissahickon, Autumn                      Thomas Moran

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com
 

The Vast Spaces of the Southwest

 If you've been following me for any length of time, you may have noticed The Vast Spaces of the Southwest is my logo or tagline. And now it's also the title of my latest painting!

This is a view in Joshua Tree National Park, although I "thinned out" the Joshua trees in the foreground because I wanted the JT on the left to be the clear star of the image.

I haven't decided if I want to enter this in a local exhibition or not. The exhibition is about art that was inspired by the national park, and my painting certainly was!

But I also promised myself: no more art shows, galleries, exhibitions/competitions, stuff like that. So: we'll see.

Enjoy, and thank you for your support!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Learning from Jill

Usually I blog about my artwork, but this time I thought I'd blog about my other passion -- science; specifically, microbiology.

I earned a Master of Science degree at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in California. My graduate advisor was one Dr. Jill Adler-Moore who, sadly, died recently of cancer.

Her celebration of life memorial was this morning, and the comments people made about her got me to thinking about my own life, which was so deeply impacted by Jill.

Dr. Jill Adler-Moore

Jill was an energetic, hard-working positive person who doubled as a cheerleader and friend to many of her students, including me. Her own passion for science and research rubbed off on everyone who worked with her, and I never realized how much of my scientific thinking came from her.

I know I can be quite intense when discussing scientific matters and I ask a lot of questions, something one learns to do in grad school. I'm the stereotypical skeptic when it comes to science topics and especially when it comes to microbiology. Many people who are not scientists don't understand this is how science works, and they easily believe what they hear about topics -- for example, immunology and the Covid-19 vaccines -- from the mass media.

I've learned that most people don't think like scientists. And it's frustrating to try and discuss things with them. But I'm grateful Jill taught me to pursue answers and seek the truth as best as we can perceive it.

Jill also taught me that failure is not necessarily a bad thing, because we're more likely to learn from our failures more than we would from our successes where we may not learn anything new at all.

The labs/jobs I worked at following grad school don't, of course often see it that way. In a way, working in real life was kind of a let-down after working with Jill in grad school.

In short, Jill changed my life! My life is better for having known her and worked with her. We stayed in touch after I finished grad school and often met for lunch when we discussed -- what else? -- scientific advancements.

By the way, Jill pioneered a treatment for systemic fungal infections by incorporating the highly toxic antifungal drug Amphotericin B into microscopic fat bubbles called liposomes. When the drug is packaged this way, it greatly reduces the toxic effects of the drug, a higher dose of the drug can be given and the patient is spared the chemotherapy-like side effects of Amphotericin B. A similar approach is being being developed for anticancer drugs.

Jill was a mentor, teacher and a good friend. As Jill's husband said at the memorial service: "We are all diminished by our loss." I totally agree.

RIP, Jill.

Irwindale

Remember that old song about the lazy hazy crazy days of summer? Well, for me, it's mostly been about lazy! Good grief!! It seems like all I want to do these days is nuthin!! Maybe mess around on my laptop, but that's about it!

Well -- at least I did manage to get a painting done last month -- a small (8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm) landscape of a place called Irwindale, which is also the title of the piece:

Irwindale isn't in the desert, but it's close enough to a desert-y look to suit me. It's east of Pasadena, CA which is east of Los Angeles. It's an area where lots of these yuccas (pronounced "yuck-ah", Hesperoyucca whipplei), also known as the Lord's Candle, bloom in mid-June if southern California had enough rain during the winter months -- a rare commodity these days.

I live about a two-hour's drive from here, so I rarely get to see this view anymore, assuming the yuccas survived the scant rainfall they've gotten over the years of drought. I hope they're still there -- I'd like to see them again.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Advancing Time

 

Advancing Time is my latest (surrealism) painting. It's essentially a redo of the very first serious painting I did: men seemingly running from a clock that is chasing them as the sun goes down. The size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

What does it mean?? Not really sure -- I'm sure something bad is in those runners' futures if/when the clock catches up with them. Maybe it has something to do with our futures as well.

I'll admit I'm concerned about our future and the future of our country. Perhaps the painting is simply an expression of concerns I have and the ominous evil just beyond the horizon. Something's coming, and it ain't good.

But for now, enjoy the time we have, and look for the beauty in our lives.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Visit

 I've been in the mood for some surrealism lately. So I'm holding back a little on making desert landscape paintings and I'm doing some small surrealism works!

The latest piece -- The Visit -- combines surrealism and a bit of desert landscape! 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

Even though I paint surrealism, I never try to explain what the images mean, usually because I don't know what they mean. In this case, I wanted a scene of a human walking through an otherworldly desert, similar to something one might see in a dream.

In fact, dream imagery is critical to my way of working -- dreams that might be a little disturbing, but the scenes are not nightmarish. This is the Salvador Dali-ish world I love to create. Some modern-day surrealism is too pretty, or too much a mere assemblage of seemingly unrelated objects thrown together in a view, or scary/ugly monstrous animals or mutated humans. Not my thing at all!

So is this female on a vision quest? Is she lost? Dream-walking? Heading into an unknown future, good or bad (as we all must)? Don't know!

All I know is: there's something freeing to me about doing these kinds of paintings. Let's face it -- I'm a surreal kind of guy. AND PROUD OF IT!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Dry Times

Dry Times refers to the droughts we in the West often get stuck with. It is also the title of my latest painting depicting some dry times in Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA.

Dry Times                                      18" x 24" / 46cm x 61cm

This year, some of the Joshua trees did bloom -- we had some rain, and it stayed pretty cool - cold most of the winter -- just the way JTs like it! Also, Joshua trees bloom earlier than the annuals and shrubs do, so it would be unusual to see flowers on the trees AND all over the desert floor at the same time. It does happen, but things have to be just right -- and this year, they weren't.

So I painted the scene pretty much as it appeared the day I last visited there. We can see the green creosote bushes, the gray blackbrush, the pale yellow Indian ricegrass and the reddish-brown seedpods of wild buckwheat.

But no wildflowers! 😢

Well, I love the desert whether springtime color appears or not. But the color sure would make it prettier!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

 

Kaua'i Shores

 

As much as I love the desert, sometimes I get romanticized images of Polynesian islands in my head.

When we took a trip to the Hawaiian Islands in October 2019, I had hoped to see places that resembled the pictures I have in my brain, but we never did find places like that on our too-brief trip.

So I've taken to painting real-life scenes but with a certain, uh, embellishment! 😃

Kaua'i Shores         8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

The foundation of this piece is Tunnels Beach (aka Makua Beach) is northern Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands. The plant life is imaginary but is based on real plants that grow on Kaua'i, but not necessarily this close to the ocean. The only animal I depicted is the Hawaiian honeycreeper, the red bird sitting on the tree fern -- difficult to paint, since it's VERY small on the painting!

More Polynesian 🌴🌴🌴paintings to come, but now it's back to the desert 🌵🌵🌵 in the studio🎨!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Joshua Tree National Park

 

Sheesh! I haven't been over to nearby Joshua Tree National Park for a long time. It IS one of my inspirational places to go for doing paintings, after all. (Of course, the Covid-19 shutdowns didn't help).

So I went there today! Weather was pleasant-to-warm, no high winds and I was in the mood. Besides, I needed some fresh material for paintings, and it's just good to go there once in a while!

Had to do some hiking and a little climbing for the picture of the red barrel cactus -- but I think it was worth it!

Oh -- and I saw a couple of lizards, too. This one is a female side-blotched lizard. (The other was a horned lizard, but I couldn't get a clear shot of that little guy).

Cute, huh?

I had hoped to make it to some other spots, but sunset came all too quickly, so -- another time. Soon. Before the oven heat begins. Such is life in the desert!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Firerock

The latest painting -- Firerock, 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

Firerock (aka Red Mountain) is the volcanic mountain out there which I believe is on the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community south of Fountain Hills (NE of Scottsdale), AZ.

This is how it looked when I drove through there to set up for an art show in Fountain Hills. A storm had just cleared up, and the desert had all these beautiful colors. I added some clouds, and I deleted the homes and gated communities that had been built where I showed open desert in the foreground.

I went by at the right time. The following evenings, the area wasn't as colorful. On occasion, timing is everything! 😃

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Happy Easter!!!

Everybody knows Easter is all about a warm sunny day filled with flowers, bunnies, chocolate eggs and jelly beans. Maybe the kids will go searching in an Easter egg hunt or looking for an Easter basket hidden somewhere in the house. That's what Easter is all about, right?

Well, not exactly.

You see -- God loves us and wants to dwell with us, living the perfect life and attitudes He had in mind for us. But there's one big problem -- we don't do so good at living a perfect life according to His standards. In fact, we suck at it, and it ticks God off!

He loves us, but He can't put up with our disobedience -- another way of saying sin. We deserve to be thrown into hell because we make God miserable, as well as ourselves and everyone else. He's got a pretty high standard, and hey! God made us!! He makes the rules, and serving Him instead of ourselves is as good as it gets.

Thankfully, God gave us a way out. He used to require sacrifices as a way of making things right with Him, but then He had another idea: He sent His Son to be a sacrifice in place of the ones we came up with. His Son, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Jesus was crucified -- nailed to a cross as a blood sacrifice. He died, but He became alive again three days later. He took our sins/disobedient acts on Himself, thus cleaning up our acts once and for all, and by rising from the grave, He conquered the deaths that WE deserve.

Why did He do this? Because He loves us and didn't want any of us to languish forever in hell. All we have to do is: accept the notion that Jesus did this and that He is now our Lord as well as our Savior from hell. And follow Him. As imperfect as we are, God wants us to try, at least, to live a live of obedience to Him. In other words, this is NOT an anything goes kind of contract.

Is there a Plan B? What about those who live a good and moral life but who don't accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior?

Well, the Bible isn't that hopeful for people in that position. I can hope that Christ's death and resurrection is one method for being saved (although Jesus Himself said He is the ONLY way, and it's hard to see a Plan B in that).

So I'M sticking with Plan A, and I pray that anyone reading this will do likewise. Eternity is a long, LONG time!!!

Ohh... In case you really need a bunny, here's a picture of ours! 😃

Superstitions

Superstitions are, of course, funny kinds of beliefs about things; it is also the name of a group of mountains in the desert east of Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

Superstitions                      acrylic/panel                     18" x 24"/46cm x 61cm

And so -- my latest painting is entitled Superstitions, in reference to the above-named mountains. I wanted the image to have a sort of surreal, almost spooky feel to capitalize on the name of these rocks.

I've been to these mountains several times, but admittedly -- I never saw them enshrouded in clouds. But I have seen photos of cloud-covered Superstition Mountains, and I knew that was what I needed to do! Plus -- I want to get more into atmospheric effects in my paintings, anyway.

So -- enjoy the painting, and no -- I'm not superstitious!!😃

Onward!!

OK, OK...I didn't post anything for the month of February (which seemed to slip by awfully fast, didn't it?)

Not that I haven't been painting -- I've been wanting to get better at rendering portraits and figurative work, so I painted a lovely young female Facebook friend just to see how I would do. It's a ways from the level I would like to be at, but I'd say it ain't bad. (However, I didn't get her permission to post it anywhere -- maybe I'll show it here in the near future).

Meanwhile, I have three paintings in progress now, and I have ideas in my head for more.

So I'll keep moving onward and upward! Practice drawing and painting human beans, and paint landscapes that show the drama nature can unleash on us, as well as pretty scenes that will make you want to go there!

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

 

Hippity-Hop

If you're like me, you think bunnies are cute. Jackrabbits are, too!

Hippity-Hop: Blacktailed Jackrabbit           a/p         8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

I decided to paint him ambling along rather than running full-out to escape a predator (that may be another painting!) Still, I blurred the shrubs in the background to look like things are in motion. Also, the clouds in the sky are intended to simulate clouds of dust that the jackrabbit is stirring up.

Jackrabbits can run 40mph / 64km/h (compared to desert cottontail rabbits which run at 19mph / 30km/h), although it can be difficult to clock the critters because they zigzag when they run, and they often bound into the air so they can look above the vegetation to see if they're being pursued.

In our former home, jackrabbits would occasionally come by and share the rabbit pellets we put out for the cottontails. The jacks had a special, endearing appeal when they moved around in their long-legged lanky way when they seemed almost clumsy!

I'm glad I had an opportunity to paint one of these amazing critters!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Possibly Prefers a Prickly Perch!

Cactus Wren is my last painting from 2020! 08" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm, acrylic on panel.

Cactus wrens are birds we see in the southwestern deserts (such as where I live!) and seem to be able to land on and flit about within the prickliest cactus without impaling themselves or stabbing themselves with thorns. In fact, they even build their nests in the branches of cactus like the teddy bear cholla shown in the painting. I can't imagine what predators would be able to get past the thorns and attack the birds or the eggs!

The males and females look pretty much the same, so I couldn't tell you if this birdie is a boy or a girl. While I can't say cactus wrens are songbirds, they make a distinctive sound that I've heard referred to as the "call of the desert." I agree with that characterization. This is what they sound like.

I love these critters!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com