How About Them Infrared Sox, Huh?

OK, as far as I know, there isn't a baseball team called the Infrared Sox (not to be confused with the Red Sox).

But infrared (IR) photography has always been a sort of hobby for me. I used to shoot 35mm infrared film, which was a pain for a number of reasons:

- It has to be loaded in, and removed from, the camera in total darkness;

- I had to cover the pressure plate on the inside of the camera back with matt black paper; otherwise, IR would pass through the film and reflect off of the pressure plate which has rows and columns of indentations that focus the IR back to the film, resulting in dark spots across the picture area;

- 35mm IR film is always grainy. This can be used to good effect, but sometimes I wanted NONgrainy pictures;

-contrast and exposure were difficult to control.

So finding out digital cameras are naturally IR-sensitive wa a Godsend! (If you want to see for yourself, look at the LCD screen on your digital camera while someone points a TV remote at it). I bought a filter adaptor and an IR filter, and did some shooting today. The images appear a deep red until they are "Photoshopped" into black-and-white images. And voila!! IR photos without the hassle of darkrooms or fumbling in the dark.

If this technology had been available years ago, it's possible I might have pursured a career as an IR photographer rather than as a painter. But at this point, I don't want to start all over again.

So it's painting forever for me! But IR photography will remain as a fun hobby and -- maybe -- a secondary source of income someday.

Jurassic Park / Jurassic Mark

The first of the "Jurassic Park" movies is one of my favorite flicks. After it came out in 1993 and I had seen it several times, I did a takeoff of the name and signed e-mails "Jurassic Mark." It seemed appropriate for several reasons:

- My name is Mark -- rhymes with, and looks like, "Park";
- I love the movie;
- I like dinosaurs (although I'm not an expert on them);
- I'll be 60 years old in a few months which, as far as I'm concerned, might as well be 150 million years old!

So -- yes, I'm a Jurassic-age fossil, and I go around chasing down and eating humans. Well, OK, I don't eat people, but I sure FEEL old sometimes! Except when I'm painting -- that takes me away from real life for a while. But in some ways, I'm still kind of a dino.

Don't be surprised if you get an e-mail signed by Jurassic Mark. That would be me.

Painting of Arches National Park

This is my latest painting -- finished just a few days ago! The size is a mere 11" x 14"/28cm x 36cm.

I mentioned on Wednesday's (28 Jan 2009) post about a trip we took to Lake Powell. One day of that trip, we (actually, I) hightailed it over to Arches National Park. This was the third visit I've made there and each time had only one day to look around! (Someday, we really need to spend a week there to see it all!)

This time around, I hiked up to see Delicate Arch up close (if you've ever seen a Utah license plate, you've seen this formation pictured on the plate). That hike wiped me out, it was getting late and the Park was surrounded by stormy weather, although at the Park itself, we had only alternating periods of sun and cloud cover.

On the way out in late afternoon, I saw this view which changed constantly as the wind drove the clouds across the sky, illuminating some distant formations, then casting them into shadow moments later. The foreground stayed mostly in shadow.

These are the kinds of scenes I live for. The lighting was magical, one could see forever, and the spires on the sides framed the view perfectly. Well, OK, I have one confession to make: the spires were separated by about 100 yards/100m and are not seen in the same view as I depicted them. Other than that, the painting, "Desert Moods" shows what I saw that afternoon. No apologizes necessary.

Again, as my tagline says: "The Vast Spaces of the Southwest" lives on.

Lake Powell

In late May, 2008, The Wiffee and I took a trip to northeastern Arizona and southeastern Utah. Our first stop was Lake Powell. The area features some of that neat redrock scenery that's typical of that part of the country plus a reservoir created by Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Powell is under the management of the National Park Service.

Our room on the second floor had a balcony that faced the lake. This painting shows the view we had, which was always amazing around sundown. The only change I made was to replace some tall, bamboo-like reeds with some native low-growing shrubbery in the foreground.

But everything else appears just as it was early one evening -- a place of magic.

Soberanes Point

As you probably know by now, I paint a lot of desert scenes. BUT -- believe it or not -- deserts aren't the only landscapes I paint. (Quick! Put your head between your knees before you totally pass out!)

The attached image shows a painting I made in 2006 of Soberanes Point, a spectacular spot along the Big Sur coastline of central California. This is one of several works I completed over the years. In fact, I'd like to do more. I always felt my desert paintings are stronger than my work of other types of scenery, but I think I'm getting to the point where I would paint good coastal views as well.

Soberanes Point lends itself to dramatic treatment because of the lighting, low clouds, rugged terrain, composition and colors. I should be able to improve on this particular painting the next time I make another piece of this or other views of Big Sur. So if you'd like to acquire this artwork, let me know! It needs a home. Size is 22" x 28"/56cm x 71cm, unframed.

When I paint another version of Soberanes Point, what you YOU have me do differently? More lights and darks? More flowers? More or less sky? Or...?

Aren't They Cute?

A male Gambels quail on the left seems to be scoping out the cute female on the right.

Desert Hills

These two pictures show a set of hills north of Joshua Tree National Park, CA. The shot on the left was taken soon after dawn; the right-hand image shows the same hills about an hour before sunset.

Obviously it was partly cloudy today, which produces magical lighting -- in my opinion, anyway. For me, these pictures illustrate what desert mountains are "supposed" to look like -- rugged, jagged peaks that overlap and recede into the distance. Even when we're enclosed by mountains, scenes like these model my tagline: "The Vast Spaces of the Southwest."

The power lines, of course, make these images less than perfect if used as photographs. However, as a painter, I can eliminate the imperfections and insert foreground elements that, working together, produces moody and atmospheric artwork -- the kind I like the best!