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!!

Sonoran Desert Moon

Sonoran Desert Moon is the latest in my never-ending series of desert paintings!

The size is 18" x 24" / 45.7cm x 61cm, a size that was always my favorite size, but I don't tend to work that "big" anymore.

The scene is in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ, looking toward the Sonoita Mountains of Mexico. (I've seen the mountain range spelled "Sonoyta" -- I don't know which is the favored spelling). I sort of thinned out the vegetation somewhat, and I've never had the pleasure of seeing the view from a bird's-eye perspective.

In any case, I followed a 19th century Hudson River School tradition by painting the landscape this way. I added cloud shadows and a quarter moon that is partially obscured by clouds. (I actually painted in more clouds than I had intended to, but I decided to leave them. Maybe I'll do another piece similar to this, but with fewer clouds).

Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Nurse Tree

A nurse tree is one that provides shelter and a certain level of protection for other young plants; in this case, a saguaro cactus. Here, a palo verde tree in bloom offers shade to the cactus, enabling it to grow to a large size without getting burned in the scorching desert sun. (The tree is also giving shade to a desert cottontail bunny-rabbit!)

The Nurse Tree    8" x 10"/20cm x 25cm

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Desert Adobe

Desert Adobe is a painting where my imagination took over. The distant mountains are based loosely on the Coxcomb Mountains of Joshua Tree National Park, CA. But the rest of it, including the house, are figments!

I wanted to create a sense of aloneness. Would someone living here ever feel lonely? Is the house even occupied, or is it abandoned? Who knows?? I'll leave that up to the viewer!

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

Alone in the desert! Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Eclipse Trip

Well, we made the pilgrimage to San Antonio, Texas to see the total solar eclipse on 8 April. But -- it was overcast, and we only saw partial eclipses when the cloud cover thinned a bit. Oh, well. At least when totality hit, it got dark. That was an amazing experience!

I expect I'll do a painting of how the eclipse looked if we had journeyed an hour or two outside of San Antonio (where people got a clear view). Otherwise, we did see lots of great scenery that I've already finished two paintings of, plus a piece which is almost finished. Here are the two I've completed. (Click on the images to enlarge):

Picacho Peak                   11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm

Enchanted Garden     11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm

"Picacho Peak is in Arizona, and Enchanted Garden is a scene featuring the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, New Mexico. I hope to get these paintings on my website soon. (The URLs are down below). I should mention: we saw a LOT of turkey vultures when we were traveling; thus, the paintings have (or will have) at least one vulture in the sky!

More to come. The trip did seem to energize my desire to paint more (even if I don't really know what I'm going to do with them!)

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Crater Range

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

Hawaiian Skies - White-Tailed Tropicbird

White-Tailed Tropicbird is (sort of) my latest painting. I actually finished it earlier this year, but I couldn't decide if I was keeping the distant hills and palms or replace it with blue sky. I ended up leaving it as it was. Size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

I was surprised to learn that seagulls tend not to occur in the Hawaiian Islands. Apparently, they don't care much for the food they find there. Thus, they only stop by temporarily if they're migrating.

But the tropicbirds fill that ecological niche!

There is also a red-tailed species. I'll have to paint one of those birdies sometime, too.

Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Autumn Glory

Autumn Glory is my newest painting. This is one of the peaks in the Elk Range in Colorado -- near Aspen, and the same mountain range that includes the fabled Maroon Bells. I think this mountain is Pyramid Peak, although I'm not sure about that. The size is 11" x 14" / 28cm x 36cm. I may do a reshoot of the painting, since this one didn't come out that great.

I had considered adding some wildlife to the scene -- some mallard ducks or maybe some deer (I DID see a buck and doe together when I was there), but then I decided -- naaahhh. I didn't feel like it!

Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cactus and Clouds

Life has a way of putting us (me) behind schedule. I dealt with Covid in January and seemingly got past it. Then last month I had a bout of vertigo -- that dizzy feeling where the world seems to be spinning around you even if one is sitting or lying down! Thankfully that's over with now. Vertigo can be an after-effect of Covid -- I've had brief episodes of vertigo before, but this time it lasted a week. NOT FUN!!!

At least I did manage to squeeze in a new painting of the Arizona desert -- it's entitled Cactus and Clouds, measures 11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm, and depicts an area southwest of Wickenburg, AZ:

Otherwise, I'm now working on a painting requested by a friend -- sort of Halloween-ish, but it's not of Halloween. I may post it here, but I may not, in which case I'll write about something else.

I'm still feeling fatigued a lot and often don't feel like doing much, but I try to find a balance -- paint while I still can, but be lazy when I want to be lazy! After being a workaholic for so long, I've learned to love laziness!!

Spring is almost here. Enjoy the turn of the season, pray for Ukraine, and thank you for your support.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Duck Pond

 Well, what th...

I finished a painting a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't written about it yet!! Until now!

Duck Pond (note the two duckies!) is a scene featuring Mount Sneffels in Colorado. It measures 18" x 24" / 45.7cm x 61cm. The mountains are close to what they actually look like; the foreground is a mix of reality and imagination.

The autumn colors tell us this must be mid-late September. The Colorado high country is spectacular at that time, and I miss seeing it.

Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Shoulda Woulda Coulda!!!

Photo of Mt. Sneffels, Colorado, USA

Shoulda Woulda Coulda...

If I WOULDA known that Mt. Sneffels in Colorado was going to become my favorite mountain to paint, I WOULDA spent a lot more time there exploring, taking pictures, sketching, stuff like that. I SHOULDA done that so I COULDA made lots more painting of the place, probably without having to use my imagination as much to fill in the blanks!!

This is one of exactly TWO pictures I took of the rock (on 35mm slide film...this is a scan; the foreground is cropped out). It was mid-September in 1996 or '97 -- autumn colors were at their peak all around us, but not here. Another week or two, and there'd be a lot more zonking yellow. Telluride is on the other side of these mountains and over to the right a bit.

I'm working on a painting of this magical place now. I've never done a painting of the Sneffels Range that I've been really happy with. I hope THIS will be the one! 😊

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Fall in the Desert

Fall in the desert?? C'mon -- Joshua trees and saguaro cactus don't offer much in the way of autumn colors!!

But fall colors do happen in desert areas -- one just has to know where to look!

Like -- near places where there's water, or where water may collect under the surface for a while. There you may find cottonwood trees and other smaller shrubs that change in the fall or early winter months.

For example, in early-mid November, cottonwoods in the Owns Valley of California change to a bright golden yellow. No other colors, unfortunately, but they can sure add a whole new look to a desert that may otherwise appear rather drab.

Mt. Whitney                                   8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

For example, this is my latest painting of such an area. It shows the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a bit of the Alabama Hills which are just off to the right, and what I believe is a park in Lone Pine, CA. Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States, is the distant jagged mountain glowing white with snow.

I hope to paint more scenes from this special place sometime soon!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com