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!!

Another Joshua Tree National Park Painting!

 Yet another painting of Joshua Tree National Park!!

Rocks 'n' Clouds             08" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

Rocks 'n' Clouds showcases some hills made of gneiss (pronounced "nice"), a type of rock found everywhere in the local Mojave Desert. These hills happen to be in Joshua Tree National Park, a place that -- as everyone knows -- is one of my favorite places on earth.

I love messing around with things like dramatic lighting and cloud shadows, the latter which I've done here. In fact, I put a lot of effort into painting clouds -- I suspect I'm really a skyscape painter with some desert thrown in! 😃

So -- I'm tempted to take a break and to start getting into an autumn mindset. I love fall and the beginnings of all the neat and fun holidays that follow! But -- there's lots to do yet in whatever time I have left in this life, so-o-o -- the break will need to be a short one. 😕.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

San Gorgonio

 Mt. San Gorgonio is one of the two mountains that cause this area to be a desert. It, along with Mt. San Jacinto and the associated mountains, form the "rain shadow" that makes the rain fall on the coastal side of the mountains, but tends to exclude rain from here; hence, desert.

🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵

San Gorgonio is also the title of my latest painting:

The size is 11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm. This piece will be a "thank you" gift to a couple that helped us out while The Wiffee was in a nursing facility. (By the way, she's out now and is doing fine). Sometimes the yellow flowers don't photograph as prominently as they appear in the painting, but hopefully, you get the idea.

Meanwhile, painting will be interesting for a while -- the lens implants following my cataract surgery have developed a cloudy film, giving everything a dreamy look. Treatment is fast and easy -- laser treatment. But getting in to see the ophthalmologist has been quite a challenge! Soon, I hope!

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

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

 

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