A Wildlife Moment

Every so often, we hear evidence of cats outside who are obviously disagreeing about something. That's not that unusual for most folks, I guess, although around here, leaving pet kitties outside isn't a good idea. Too many coyotes would LOVE to make a meal out of those furry felines.

Last night before going to bed, I heard that characteristic "whhhaaarrrr!" of cats who were thinking about "gettin into it," except the two cats somehow sounded meaner than usual.

Being a moonless night, I flipped on a spotlight fixture so I could see what was going on out there. I was quite surprised to see not house cats, but bobcats, squaring off and making truly nasty, scary noises. I quickly turned the light off again so, if they decided to turn physical, I wouldn't put the bobcat facing the blinding lights at a disadvantage.

Well, the felines "whhhaaarrr'ed" at each other a while longer, then all was quiet. Perhaps next time (and I'm sure there will be a next time), I'll try to take a picture that might be useful for a painting some day.

But this is one of the things I love about living in the desert. It's still rural enough here for these kinds of "wildlife moments" to happen for us to see. And it provides inspiration for art.

Is It Real, or Is It...?

Pictured is one of my favorite species of lizards to "hide" in a desert painting.

It's a zebra-tailed lizard (Callisaurus draconoides), a species that is fairly common throughout the Southwestern deserts. I've seen them a number of times and have even been lucky enough to take some pictures of them before they disappear within the blink of an eye.

This particular individual, however, is a sculpture. It looks real, but it's made of polymer clay. (Polymer clay can be "fired" in a standard household oven, unlike dirt-style clay which must be fired in a high-temperature kiln). He (or she?) was made by an artist friend who for years has been making lizards, snakes, frogs and turtles. Lately she's been adding more colorful/decorative critters to her production.

The artist's name is Sandra Lee, and you can see what she's been up to here: http://picasaweb.google.com/SandraLeeandNat

I have quite a collection of her sculptures, most of which have appeared in numerous paintings. These, plus with the help of the photos I've taken of these desert reptiles, have aided me greatly in adding just a little life to my desert artwork.

Cactus Flower -- Future Painting

This little beauty was blooming last week, and I thought I should take a picture of it since this was the last bud. I knew it would wilt within a couple of days, and I wanted to get a photo with the cactus backlit.

Why backlit? I have an idea for a painting that involves a night scene with the full moon in the sky and this cactus in the foreground.

I don't know exactly when I'll get a chance to work on this particular idea. But when I do, I'll already have the materials I'll need when flowers are not available. Since it'll be a night scene, I'll be altering the colors, so an exact color match isn't necessary (although I did some color-matching for these flowers a long time ago when I painted a flower from life).

I've sometimes said in artist's statements: I live to paint; and when I'm not painting, I'm thinking about future paintings. That last point is what I was doing today: collecting reference material for the day when I'll need it.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

...or is that bizzee bizzee bizzee?

I'm still working on getting paintings done, of course, but I spend more time these days marketing myself, especially via my Website.

Plus--we're preparing for a different kind of painting: the trim on the house needs to be scraped, primed and painted. Then I need to install rain gutters (which I removed the last time we painted but never replaced). We painted the trim a few years ago, but the paint didn't last -- we suspect water was running off the roof and leaking under the edge flashing. But we had the roof fixed up a year ago, so new trim paint should last longer.

Funny--this kind of painting doesn't give the same satisfaction as fine art-style painting. However, it'll be nice to get it done and the rain gutters put up.

Meanwhile, the promotion continues, and hopefully I'll have enough energy to do the type of painting I need to do!!!

Wine and Sewage

I had to leave an online artists forum recently. I couldn't take it any more.

This particular forum offers quite a wide range of topics dealing with art. But the one I visited the most was the "Art Business" section because, like so many other artists, I'm trying to get answers about surviving financially as an artist, especially in this economy.

One of the "contributors" is a guy who makes little stained-glass sailboats and dragons. Frankly, he seems to be rather full of himself as he over-generalizes, provokes others to anger and can't really respond to disagreement; rather, he ignores it and continues to repeat the same tired comments he's become known for on that forum, or even accuses the disagreer of making personal attacks against him.

Others have already disappeared from the forum, and I'm just the latest. Some of what this guy says may be valid, but when so much of his approach seems counterintuitive or at least unrelated to other artists' experiences, it's hard to know what can be believed.

It reminded me of a pearl I picked up years ago:

If you add a spoonful of wine to a barrel of sewage, you have ... sewage.
If you add a spoonful of sewage to a barrel of wine, you have ... sewage.

Three Paintings at Once

Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm going to try to have three paintings going on at once!

Oil painters have been known to do this because of the drying times involved with oils. In my case, I'm in somewhat of a hurry to get these three particular paintings finished ASAP -- and I can't prioritize them, so I'll just HAVE to work on all three at the same time!

They are:

1. A Joshua tree scene just before sunset, with a sky similar to the Yosemite National Park scene shown above;


2. A second scene with Joshua trees, only it'll be done without all the transparent glazes. This piece will be offered on eBay or possibly some other online site other than my Website;


3. A Christmas image, of all things: not that I'm thinking about Christmas these days, but this painting is intended for a Southwest-flavored Christmas card. I know of several companies that might pick this up, or I may self-publish the design and sell boxes of cards locally later this year.

In the meantime, I've got a lot of chores to do around the house. I've been letting things go because I've been trying to paint so much. But with the economy slowed down, the need to produce-produce-produce isn't as acute right now.

Of course, that doesn't mean I won't be going insane trying to do all this stuff. Wish me luck!

ANOTHER Website Revision!

I spent most of the day revising my Website again. I decided the nine paintings I featured, three under each of the three categories, weren't enough.

So I lengthed the pages so I could show more paintings. Also, on the "Desert Paintings" page, I included some of my works the galleries have on hand right now, along with links to the galleries.

So if you haven't seen the site lately (or especially since Wednesday, 6 May), stop by and pay it a visit:

http://www.southwestspaces.com or http://www.desert-paintings.com.

If you have any comments or questions, comment me here or send an e-mail via the Website.