Desert Morning

Desert Morning is the tentative title of my latest painting ("tentative" because I have another painting entitled One Desert Morning -- I need to make sure I don't confuse the two).

It's another miniature painting: 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm, acrylic on panel. It features an area which is near -- but not in -- Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, and is visible from SR62.

I always loved these particular hills/mountains, especially when the light brings out the textures, nooks and crannies of the landscape. The yellow blooms of the desert senna shrubs add a little color to the scene.

Enjoy!!

A Joshua Tree Painting

FINALLY!!! I finished my first painting for 2024!!

This is a view I saw many years ago from the Boy Scout Trailhead in Joshua Tree National Park, California. I haven't decided on a title yet, but I'll come up with something. When I do, I'll offer it on my website. The size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

Enjoy! 

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

More (What Else?) Desert Landscape Paintings

Two more desert landscape paintings -- one small, one mini! Both are of Joshua Tree National Park.

JT12                                              5" x 7" / 12.7cm x 17.8cm

Dawn II                                      8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

Small Paintings of a Big Desert

 I would call Joshua Tree National Park a big desert!! And a small part of an even bigger desert.

This latest painting shows the Park at the very beginning of sunrise. We were getting sunrises like this every morning for a while, and I'm sure we'll get more when the monsoon season starts up in a month or so.

Anyway, here it is. 5" x 7" / 12.7cm x 17.8cm. Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Last (for Now) Mini Painting of the Desert

 OK -- just one more small (5" x 7" / 13cm x 18cm) painting of Joshua Tree National Park. Now I want to see how the public/tourists like 'em before I do more.

For now, I'm working on a painting of Hawai'i and hula dancers -- something just for me. It's unlikely I'll offer the original for sale, but maybe I'll make it available for prints on Fine Art America.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

ANOTHER Small Desert Painting

 Yet another small painting of the desert (specifically, Joshua Tree National Park in California, USA). I want to see if I can squeak out one more painting with the tourists in mind (to be sold locally), but for now, this is the latest. Enjoy!!

Dawn II

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or SouthwestSpaces.com

Borregos Cimarrónes

Borregos Cimarrónes is the title of my latest painting. It's Spanish for "bighorn sheep" which appear in the work.

The area is south of Palm Desert, CA. Bighorns are found around here, although I admit I've never actually seen them in this spot. But adding them to the scene is not fantasy -- it's likely they do show up on these hills.

Otherwise, the hills and open spaces of this special place have long appealed to me, and I've painted this site numerous times, each a little different from each other. In springtime, the wildflowers color the area: yellow brittlebush and red-tipped ocotillo dominate the view. I included the spike-tipped rosettes of agave: people who know desert ecology have observed ocotillo and agave tend to appear together, at least in the California deserts.

Another thing I've noticed here is the ground isn't all a uniform color. I've noticed spotty regions of various tints, like green or red. The colors are quite subtle and don't show in the above photograph. But they DO show in the painting itself.

I imagine I'll do more paintings of this vista, although I'll have to continue working off of photos I've taken in years past. I've since learned that this entire area is part of a University of California at Irvine research center. My human presence could affect their findings and I don't want to contaminate their findings in any way. (Besides, in my old age, hiking in these places is hard on me now).

I plan (for now) on keeping this piece, although I may offer it as a print on Fine Art America. Ahhh...I sure love the desert!

Mark Junge

MarkJunge.com or SouthwestSpaces.com

A Winter Painting and a Christmas Painting!

 A couple of paintings appropriate for the season!

Mojave Snow                   8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

A Colorado Christmas    8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

One shows the aftereffects of a rare snowstorm in the Mojave desert of Joshua Tree National Park; the other is a Christmas scene in a home somewhere in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. (The mountain outside the window and in the painting over the fireplace are the same mountain: Mt. Sneffels, my favorite Colorado Mountain to paint!)

I hope you enjoy these images and that you have a wonderful holiday season!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

 

Two Desert Paintings!

Two new desert paintings!

The first is one I made while my vision was foggy last month (from films that developed on the lens implants I received after my cataract surgery three years ago). I was able to tweak the painting a bit after I got the laser treatment to remove the films, but there were still things I just couldn't see while the world was blurry -- such as the brush marks and ridges of paint that took away from the smooth surfaces I prefer on my paintings. Oh, well. I guess I can live with it. Below are the images of the entire painting plus a detail showing the two bunnies:

In the Arizona Sun................... 24"/45.7cm x 61cm

Detail -- two desert cottontail bunnies!

Then, after my vision was cleared up, I started and finished a smaller painting showing the entrance to the Alabama Hills region at Lone Pine, CA. You've undoubtedly seen views of this magnificent area in movies -- Clint Eastwood's Joe Kidd and Kevin Bacon's Tremors come to mind -- with the east face of the mighty and rugged Sierra Nevada mountain range in the background and "rock piles" littering the desert floor. Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states, is the cluster of points to the right of center.

As one enters this special place, a lone cottonwood tree appears to the north of the road among one of the rock piles. We happened to see it in early November, and the golden yellow made it a star shining in a blue and brown vista! So this was what I painted:

Lone Cottonwood in Lone Pine....... 8"x10"/20cm x 25cm

So that's it for now!! More paintings are on the way -- thanks for reading this, and thank you for your support!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Three New Desert Paintings!

Visiting Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona last month definitely energized my desire to paint the desert -- I've completed three small paintings since we returned on 04 April!! All are 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

A Desert Stroll

Eagle's Nest

Arizona Desert

Can you tell? I LOVE the desert!! I think I needed to see saguaro and organ pipe cacti in their natural settings. (Eagle's Nest is a scene in local Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA). I love Joshua trees and our Mojave desert, too, but I think I needed to be immersed in the Sonoran desert of Arizona for more inspiration.

I'd say it worked!

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

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

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

 

Quenching the Land

Quenching the Land is a painting I made years ago -- I think before I even began this blog.

Quenching the Land                                       16" x 20" / 41cm x 51cm

It's no secret that deserts are hard-up for rain; thus, when it comes, it's such a blessing to the plants and animals that live there.

The scene features a grouping of monzogranite boulders in Joshua Tree National Park with its namesake Joshua trees and some yuccas in bloom. The painting is hanging in the Hi Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley, CA.

Mark Junge
www.MarkJunge.com
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www/FineArtAmerica.com (for prints)
 

Superbloom

Superbloom is the title of my latest painting. It shows some of the rolling hills of California when nature featured a spectacular display of wildflowers, especially the fluorescent orange of California poppies. The size is 11" x 14" / 28cm x 36cm, acrylic on panel.

Superbloom

Some parts of this area were extremely crowded, with lots of people and cars wanting to get up close (and into) the fields of flowers. However, I tend to like more expansive vistas and was perfectly happy being down the road from the crowded spots.

It's hard to say when the next wet winter and superbloom will happen, but I'm sure glad we were able to see THIS one! I expect to make several paintings from this trip -- this one is only the first!

Mark Junge
www.MarkJunge.com
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.FineartAmerica.com  (for prints)