Gathering Storm: Sonoran Pronghorn

Sonoran pronghorn are a desert-dwelling subspecies of the grasslands pronghorn we're more familiar with. At this time, they are found only in the southern-most regions of Arizona and south into Mexico. They are highly endangered, although their numbers are increasing thanks to cooperation between US and Mexican wildlife biologists and the captive breeding program in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.

Gathering Storm: Sonoran Pronghorn    11" x 14"    acrylic/panel

These critters are smaller, lighter-colored and skinnier than the ones you find on the prairie. They're quite shy and can see people approaching from over a mile away -- and the pronghorn disappear long before you would ever know they were there.

A storm is coming, and hopefully these guys are looking for some shelter -- not easy in the desert. The scene is in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument; in the distance loom the Sonoyta Mountains of Mexico.

I hope Sonoran pronghorn will return from the brink of extinction.

The painting is presently on my website. At this writing, all it needs is a coat of varnish, and it'll be ready to hang in someone's home or office!

www.southwestspaces.com/western_landscape_art.html

 

How to Pursue This Art Business

I'm still struggling with how to make a living, at least a part-time living, at art. I need to. Social Security isn't enough, and my IRA will be drained sometime early next year. The Wiffee is working toward launching a business, but again -- who knows how long, or if, it will take off.

Galleries are out of the question. It's all consignment, they take 40% - 50% (sometimes more), and it can be a hassle getting them to pay you when the work does sell. I even know of one gallery owner who decided to pull up stakes and take off -- with the remaining inventory of artwork that he never paid for. Thankfully, I wasn't in his gallery.

Outdoor art shows, and the travel associated with them, got too expensive and too iffy if nothing sold. Many of the western art shows keep inviting the same artists to show -- as long as they are selling and if they want to be in the shows, there's rarely any room for unknowns like me. And when you come right down to it, I don't really like traveling anymore. I'm a totally cocooned artist!

Showing at banks, restaurants, whatever -- I just haven't heard enough success stories (in fact, I've heard none!) to chase that idea.

That leaves the Internet. I'm hoping I can depend on website sales and maybe from other sites, if I can find some good ones. (EBay and etsy.com seem to have gone downhill for art sales).

That's why I'm painting smaller these days -- the art will be more affordable, and it'll be easier to ship, especially if I continue with my policy of selling the works unframed.

And I'm hoping I can reach parts of the country where people still appreciate traditional/classical painting styles. Most collectors in southern California sure don't!

So -- I guess I'll need to pour my marketing efforts into Internet sales -- period. Frankly, I don't know what else to do. (By the way, my website URL is SouthwestSpaces.com or MarkJunge.com).

Wish me luck!

Continuing the Continuation (Some More)

I'm in the habit of scouring Google Images looking for artwork .. sometimes paintings made in the past, and occasionally art being made today.

In fact, I stumble across works from the 19th century onward that are stunning in their beauty. I wish I could reproduce some of the modern-day masterpieces, but I don't want to violate anyone's copyright and get myself in a legal bind. Check out the piece entitled "Buttermere," the first painting that appears on this page. I LOVE this painting!! And it's quite inspiring to me and shows a direction I want to work toward.

Suffice to say, I've seen landscape paintings with breathtaking lighting and shadow effects that seem to give the land a spiritual sense and make it come alive. That's what I want in my own landscapes. Little by little, I'm getting there.

Funny -- sometimes I mean to create works with those qualities, and somehow it doesn't always happen. I keep returning to what I've done before ... the tried and true ... the comfortable and familiar. But I have slowly been breaking out of that mold, and I think I'm finally ready to portray the sheer drama of nature and what she has to show us ... and dish out to us, sometimes!

"Pretty" landscapes are still fun and, well, they're pretty. But drama can be pretty, too, and sometimes dramatic scenes can move us in ways mere prettiness can't.

Continuing the continuation. Here I come!

The Caretakers of Our Souls

The Caretakers of Our Souls      11" x 14"      acrylic on panel

I always like to think of churches as being the caretakers of our souls while we are here in this life. (I don't always agree with some of the other stuff that goes on, but in my ideal world, that's what churches do).

This is my latest classically-inspired painting. It's a scene of one of the old California missions: Mission San Antonio de Padua, north of Paso Robles in the little town/area of Jolon. Thankfully, it today sits in a rustic setting but is still an active parish. A man is strolling down the path, looking around, contemplating the world that is unseen and bigger than this one.

In my mind, this guy is me -- always looking for answers, lost in thought, trying to get past the clichés and simple-minded, feel-good platitudes that have overcome modern Christianity. He -- I -- are into the deeper things of existence, trying to reach into the infinite much as I did when I used to do transcendental mediation years ago. God is so, SO much more than the grandfatherly figure we laugh and talk with over coffee.

I made only a few changes to the actual scene -- the dirt footpath is really a paved road, covered in faded asphalt. I brought the trees on the right a bit forward from where they are in life.

The title came from an old Robert Stack movie, The Caretakers. He was the director of a mental hospital, and in talking with his staff, Robert described all of them as "the caretakers of their souls," the ones who were there for the patients, helping them as best they could to play the cards the patients have been dealt. That's an awesome role, all considered.

The churches, then, are/should be the caretakers of OUR souls. another awesome role to fill.


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End of Another Day

End of Another Day is my latest painting It features a view in Joshua Tree National Park in late afternoon. It's spring, but I de-emphasized the flowers and focused more on shapes and lighting.

End of Another Day                                 11" x 14"

This is the first piece I've done in a long time that doesn't include any wildlife -- not even a hawk in the sky. In my mind, there's a fine line between solitude and loneliness -- this time, I was leaning more toward the latter. Lots of space, everything is spread out, long shadows and only rock and plants -- no animals. I think a critter would have added something that people can relate to, and maybe then the viewer wouldn't feel quite so alone out there. (Of course, the critters are actually all around you, watching -- but you don't see them!)

I don't know if I succeeded -- if I didn't, well, not a huge issue. But if you look at this and sense that you may be the only form of animal life on the planet...then I pulled it off!

Enjoy.

The San Dimas Festival of Arts

I visited an art show this weekend -- one that I've participated in once in a while. It used to be the San Dimas Festival of Western Arts San Dimas, CA, but they decided to broaden the scope of the artwork they present, with the only twist: it has to have a California connection. Something about what's here today or in history, whether landscapes, buildings, people, activities et al.

It's always fun to visit this show. While I always see works that don't fit into the classical genre that I love, there is some nice work here. It was also an opportunity to visit friends I never see unless I visit this show, and I squeezed in a little networking, too.

I hope the show went well for everyone. As with many shows and artists in the continuing recession that just won't go away, the Festival's sales have been down. Such a shame -- it's a nice show that deserves to be around for a long time.

More Microbial Surrealism

I'm slowly but surely adding to my portfolio of surrealism paintings based on things I've seen under various types of microscopes. (Being a microbiologist has its benefits!)

A Quarter Past Tomorrow        20" x 24" / 51cm x 61cm

 A Quarter Past Tomorrow shows the sporulating structures and threadlike hyphae ("hy-phee") of one of the common green bread molds -- Aspergillus glaucus. My intent was not to make a scientific illustration, but to produce a work of fine art in the tradition of French surrealist Yves Tanguy.

Also, surrounding the mold are small golden-yellow spheres. These are the bacteria species, Staphylococcus aureus, the cause of the MRSA infections that becoming increasingly common. I considered making the Staph much bigger, but in the end, I decided to keep things approximately to scale -- and bacteria are much smaller than fungal growth.

The green balls that form the sprays on the ends of the vertical growths are reproductive spores. If you've ever watched mold growing, you'd see it starts out as a white, cottony mass, then it turns fuzzy and green. The spores are what gives mold its color.

Aspergillus species are normally benign unless your immune system is down and you inhale lots of spores (which are all around us). Then it can cause a pretty nasty infection in the lungs and even disseminate to other parts of the body.

That concludes today's microbiology lecture. Enjoy the painting. More to come, possibly with greater liberties taken when I present these mysteriously beautiful organisms.

Finally, I'll be creating a website soon just for the surreal works (with links back and forth to my western landscapes site). The new site isn't created yet, but the URL is www.SurrealMark.com. I'll let you know when it's up and if I'll be offering these paintings online, or if the site will be strictly a portfolio with information on where to acquire the art.