One Night in the Redwoods

One Night in the Redwoods is the title of my latest painting. I've never been in a redwood forest at night, but I imagine it to look like a daytime scene except darker! ☺

One Night in the Redwoods

The size is 16" x 20" / 41cm x 51cm. I wanted the piece to have a dreamy, moody look; hence, I made blurry most of the items in the painting. The gal is obviously a nymph (if redwood forests don't have nymphs, they otta!) The "model" was a statue I have and have seen elsewhere online with different titles -- Shyness, Shame and others. (My favorite title is Abbandonata (Forsaken), sculptor unknown). But in this case, I removed what little clothing she had on, and she is on her knees instead of standing.

One Night in the Redwoods is somewhat of an autobiographical image and very much reflects my own thoughts about life. If this comes through, I've done my job!!

The next painting -- one I've already started -- will have lots of color and flowers. An opposite of this piece.

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

The Dance

The Dance is my latest painting -- only slightly surreal this time as compared to my other surrealistic paintings.

The Dance                              11" x 14" / 28cm x 36cm

The image was inspired by a Greek folk dance class I happened to be watching many years ago. (The bubbles were not there, of course).

So what does it mean? As usual, I prefer to leave that up to the viewer. Some friends thought it's a reference to togetherness, solidarity among women, women's rights, racial equality, on and on.

Some day, I'll need to find a gallery or show where the public may view the paintings in real life -- for those who need some surreal moments in their lives!

Autumn Nymph

Autumn Nymph is finally finished!

Autumn Nymph     20" x 16" / 51cm x 41cm

I mentioned this painting on my previous post -- a gal taking in the beautiful fall colors of a maple forest (maybe even producing the colors!) with leafy garlands on her head and in her hands. I was going to title it "Goddess of Autumn" or "Queen of Autumn," but I really didn't attire her in a godly or royal outfit. Plus, she has a playful expression that one sees all the time on nymphs. 😀😀😀

And one item of blue, which turned out to be an indigo bunting. I originally thought of painting-in a blue morpho butterfly -- those neat flutterbies with the iridescent / metallic blue wings. However, their wings are brown on the undersides, and looking up at one would display more brown than blue. So I went with the bird instead.

Frankly, I've got a long ways to go when it comes to painting portraits or the figure in the classical-realism style I'm addicted to. I received some help with the face from friend and master painter Virgil Elliott. I've learned that doing this in my fast-drying acrylic adds significantly to the challenge. If I decide to pursue this subject matter, I may have to use oil paint for portraits. Or learn how to get around the problem of having little time to blend colors smoothly.

The woman was a former co-worker of The Wiffee's back in the 1980s. I took a series of photos of her -- she even had some ballet skills to help her look graceful and even more awesome than she was! (I shot black and white film -- I have no idea now why I did that instead of color!) She's a bit on the plump side, but "curviness" happens to be attractive, and even a turn-on, to me. I know lots of other males agree with me.

The painting sort of looks like the real person, but not entirely. Virgil suggested I spend a lot more time just drawing and improving my skills. I'd have to agree with him.

I don't know if I'll try to sell this, but I'm thinking -- this one may be just for ME! It was a great learning experience, but I need to get better at rendering the face and figure.

Like they say: Back to the drawing board!


This piece will appear on my yet-to-be-launched website, www.SurrealMark.com. In the meantime, my landscapes still appear on my existing site(s):

www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com