Showing posts with label Desert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desert. Show all posts

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Commission -- Joshua Tree Sunset

Just finished my second painting for the year and my first commission in a long time!


(The sun isn't as solid white as it appears in the picture -- my paintings can be hard to photograph!)

Anyway, the painting is 22" x 28" / 55.9cm x 71.1cm -- larger than I've been doing in a long time! Joshua Tree Sunset is a scene in the National Park of that name, one of my favorite places on the planet.

Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Tuesday, February 13, 2024

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

This is a view a 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



Thursday, January 4, 2024

Well, another year has come and gone...and so quickly! How is that happening?

I managed to finish only one painting in December. It seems like it took me forever -- but not because it was especially hard, but I had trouble making decisions about it; plus, there were lots of interruptions AND I wasn't feeling very motivated.

But here it is: Crater Range, an area between Gila Bend and Ajo, Arizona. It's a volcanic-looking area that features an Air Force bombing range on the other side of those mountains! (I never heard any bombs going off the times I visited there -- thankfully).

Crater Range         8" x 10"

The size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm. Enjoy!


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


Thursday, September 7, 2023

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

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

A Desert Wash

 This is a painting of a desert wash in the southern part of Joshua Tree National Park.

This area spawns glorious wildflower color in the spring (if enough rain has fallen at the right time), and even washes -- "rivers" that are dry most of the time -- features bursts of color. In this case, chuparosa shrubs produce red blooms that are much loved by hummingbirds. The smoke tree will bloom -- if it does -- later, most likely in June.

The size of this painting is 5" x 7"/12.7cm x  17.8cm.




Friday, August 11, 2023

Aries

 As we all know, Aries is a zodiac sign which references a ram. In this case Aries is a desert or peninsular bighorn sheep.

Actually, this is the second time I painted a bighorn and named him Aries, so the painting is entitled Aries II.

In my opinion, bighorn sheep are the majestic animals of the desert -- so noble, so graceful -- and so endangered. The herd populations are slowly increasing in size, but they've got a way to go in areas that break up their habitat with highways, development, humans...stuff like that.

This scene is in Joshua Tree National Park, although I added the rock pinnacle that the bighorn is standing on, and I added the bighorn, too -- this one actually lives at the Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Palm Desert, CA. I think I did an OK job of showing the space the way it would look with the bird's eye view, the pinnacle and the sheepie!

Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or SouthwestSpaces.com

Aries II                                  18" x 24" / 45.7cm x 61cm



Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Moonlit Hunter

 


Moonlit Hunter is my latest painting. It shows an elf owl (Micrathene whitneyi) in the Arizona desert under the light of a full moon. These sparrow-sized (4.9"-5.7"/12.5cm-14.5cm) critters are the smallest owl species and eat mostly insects.

The Native American pot is somewhat a product of my imagination. It has an owl motiff -- I've never seen a pot like this, but I've seen pottery figurines of owls. So I used the basic design of the figurines and placed them on a pot. The owl is actually sitting on a piece of cholla wood that ended up in the pot somehow.

The winter constellation Orion the Hunter appears in the night sky. It seemed appropriate to go with an owl -- a hunter!

The painting is my own, but it was inspired by a piece by the late Larry Toschik that appeared in an old Arizona Highways magazine. Unfortunately, prints of it were never made available or I would have gotten one.

Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

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

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Small Joshua Tree Paintings Galore!!

This isn't exactly the newest painting of Joshua Tree National Park, but it IS one I forgot to post here on my blog!!

As before, it's 5" x 7"/12.7cm x 17.8cm and can be framed or, according to my notions, placed on a small mini easel for display. Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Monday, June 19, 2023

Another Small Painting of Joshua Tree National Park

Yet ANOTHER small (5" x 7"/12.7cm x 17.8cm) painting of Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA.

I stretched reality just a little -- normally, Joshua trees and the yellow-flowered goldenbush don't bloom at the same time. But that's not to say it couldn't happen! 


Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Sunday, June 4, 2023

Hula and the Desert

 What a combination -- paintings of Hawaii (with hula dancers) and the desert in Joshua Tree National Park!! Well -- somebody's gotta do it! 😃

I wish I was better at painting hooman beans than I am, but I guess I just need to paint them more often. But so far, this is what I'm able to do. Enjoy!!

                                    Moonlight Hula         11" x 14" / 27.0cm x 35.9cm

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


Thursday, May 11, 2023

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


Friday, April 28, 2023

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

Thursday, April 13, 2023

A Coupla More Small Desert Paintings

 A coupla more small (5" x 7" / 12.7cm x 17.8cm) paintings of Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA. Maybe three more to do, then I'll either place them somewhere where tourists might see 'em and get 'em as souvenirs, or I'll offer 'em at a boutique our church is having in mid-May. We'll jus' hafta see!



These will NOT appear on my website. They'll be sold with mini easels to set the pieces on, and I'd rather not have to deal with packaging up the easels and the paintings for shipping.

Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Monday, April 3, 2023

The Surreal and the Desert

 Good grief -- I just realized I didn't post at all during March!!

But now it's April, I survived April Fool's Day, and I'm moving forward -- finally!

I finished two paintings last month. One is a somewhat surreal piece which, as usual, I can never really explain. The other is a scene from Joshua Tree National Park and is definitely a miniature painting -- 7" x 5" / 17.8cm x 12.7cm. My plan is to make several (or many) paintings this size and make them available as tabletop pieces to the many tourists who visit the National Park. They'll be offered with mini easels, or the collectors can have them framed if they prefer.

Memories of the Dark                                                   11" x 14"/27.9cm x 35.6cm

Hi Desert in Bloom                        7" x 5"/17.8cm x 12.7cm

In the meantime, have a blessed Easter! Be on the lookout for more paintings!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Arizona Desert with Bunny

 Arizona Desert with Bunny is my latest painting. The title is somewhat reminiscent of how landscape artists used to title their paintings -- nothing poetic or unusual, just descriptive of what a viewer could see for himself or herself. And "bunny" really should be "desert cottontail rabbit," but "bunny" is cuter and shorter!

The site is somewhere east of Quartzsite, AZ, but I don't remember the name of the place. I normally conceal critters more than I did here, but somehow, a bunny more in the open seemed appropriate.

Enjoy!

Arizona Desert with Bunny                      8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Monday, February 6, 2023

Western Tanagers

 


Western Tanagers is the title, and the subject, of my latest painting. Size is 10" x 8" / 25cm x 20cm.


I was blessed enough to see a male tanager in a desert willow tree at our previous residence. Obviously, these are among the many birdies that display "sexual dimorphorism" where the boys and the girls look differently.

The male is in his breeding plumage; in fall and winter, he loses the red from his head and looks pretty much like the female.

Nature lesson for today!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Thursday, February 2, 2023

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


Monday, January 30, 2023

Desert Cardinal

New painting of a desert cardinal (aka pyrrhuloxia), found in southern Arizona and New Mexico, and southwestern Texas, then south into Mexico.

Desert Cardinal                                                   8" x 10" / 20cm x 25"

I added just a little green over the branch in the lower lefthand corner so the green doesn't appear to end abruptly at the branch...but I haven't scanned the slightly improved version of the painting yet.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Wednesday, September 28, 2022

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