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