Desert Snow

One normally does not put "desert" and "snow" in the same sentence. Deserts are thought of as hot, dry places...snow is the last thing you'd expect to find out there.

But it does happen -- in the true deserts, and in places that are not deserts but that look desert-y.

The Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs, CO is a place that looks desert-y. And it typically snows there in greater or lesser amounts.

I posted on Facebook the following image of a painting I did years ago showing the Garden of the Gods in the snow:

A Snowy Thanksgiving                             22" x 28"

(I should mention the image was scanned from a 35mm slide. Sorry about the huge copyright symbol!)

Meanwhile, an artist friend from Oregon -- one of the artists I met years ago at an art show -- is now teaching painting classes in Wickenburg, AZ. He has included gallery space, mostly for his own artwork, but then he saw A Snowy Thanksgiving. He loves it and asked me to exhibit it, along with 5-6 others (all with snow) in his gallery. The gallery would have just his and my art.

I have seen other red rock areas with snow (i.e., Bryce Canyon National Park) in addition to Garden of the Gods. And the Mojave desert sometimes gets snow, and -- more rarely -- even the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona gets snow on occasion (which disappears quickly afterwards).

So -- we'll see what I come up with in the months ahead. The gallery opens in October, and the grand opening is in November. I'll let you know exactly where and when things will be happening.

I'll continue to be in touch, and thank you for your support!

Mark Junge
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com
www.FineArtAmerica (for prints) 

Deep Canyon View

Deep Canyon is a place south of Palm Desert that includes a research center. Deep Canyon View is my latest painting of the area. I love the view, the sweeping vista, the overlapping mountains and the ocotillos and brittlebush that grow there.

Deep Canyon View                                                             30" x 40"

This piece was a commission I recently finished -- 30" x 40" / 76cm x 102cm. I've painted this view many times -- you'd think I could do it from memory!

Nowadays, with the knee problems I have, it's unlikely I would ever go hiking out there again. Besides that, this entire area, including the ground I was standing on, is all part of the Boyd Research Center -- by being here, I could unintentionally impact the research findings one way or another. So that's another reason I wouldn't go back again.

I did take many, many pictures of this place that I can use as reference material for years to come if need be. Someday this scene could become my opus magnum -- the largest and best desert painting I will ever have done! We'll see. 😃

Mark Junge
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com
www.FineArtAmerica (prints)

 

Show and Tell -- My First Painting!

I feel like I'm sticking my neck out....

 

This is the very first painting I did that I would consider a "serious" painting (that is -- it's not finger painting or stuff like that). I did it for a painting class ca. 1970. I'd like to think my technique has progressed a little since then.

I was mostly obsessed with surrealism in those days. I knew -0- about classical realism, the look I prefer today even with surreal works. I think I was making a point about something. Time running out? Time is gonna get those two humans trying to escape?

I never liked the green "vegetation" on the left, but I was way too impatient to do it better. Also, I wanted the sun to pop, so I used a fluorescent magenta. In real life, it definitely popped more than the background colors.

This was scanned from a rather dark 35mm slide -- hard to work with. Oh, well.

Maybe some day I'll be a better, more sophisticated version of this untitled piece!

 

Mark Junge

www.SouthwestSpaces.com

www.MarkJunge.com

 

Watch the Birdie(s)

One of the things I love about our home in the desert is seeing all the wild critters that come by -- bunnies and birdies, in particular.

We have a hummingbird feeder that hangs where we can see it from inside the house. Of course, it isn't just hummingbirds that enjoy the sugar-water. House finches and several species of desert-dwelling orioles have a sweet "tooth," too!

This is probably my favorite birdie to see (although hummingbirds are awfully cute, too!) This is a hooded oriole,  Icterus cucullatus. The males around here are a brilliant, almost fluorescent, yellow with black and white markings. They're so colorful!

One thing I've noticed about these and other birds -- they're incredibly cautious! Whenever they land on the feeder (which is out in the open), they sit there and look in all directions, carefully making sure nothing is going to attack them while feeding. Once they're satisfied it's safe, they'll take a quick drink, then return to looking for predators.

They'll repeat this routine several times until they finally get enough sugar-water, then they fly off.

It reminds me of the advice given to humans -- be aware of your surroundings! With so many human predators in the world, we need to be cognizant of who is nearby and what they may be doing. As the birds instinctively know, it's a dangerous world, and while an attitude of fear isn't necessarily called for, we must be ready to respond to anything that may be dangerous to us.

The birdies know. They woundn't live very long if they don't follow through. We should do the same.

(Someday, I'm gonna have to paint a hooded oriole!)

Mark Junge
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com
 

The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory is my latest painting. (I prefer making autumn paintings when it's actually autumn, but...oh, well -- what are you gonna do with an artist like me?)

The Power and the Glory                              18" x 24" / 46cm x 61cm

It's a scene of my favorite mountain to paint -- Mt. Sneffels in the San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado. I did make a few minor changes to the view -- I painted Sneffels to be a little taller and steeper than it actually is. However, the mountain is still a "14er" -- 14,157 feet / 4.3km -- pretty tall!

So the mountain is where the "power" comes from, and the "glory" is in the fluorescent golden leaves of the aspen grove.

The work is somewhat idealized, but I think it makes the point I wanted to make -- a painting of a mountain with the jagged, sawtooth edges that I love. Mt. Sneffels is the perfect example of that type of rock!

Mark Junge
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com
 

The Arts and the Christian - Part I (Maybe!)

Today, The Wiffee and I finally got around to seeing the movie, I Can Only Imagine. It's a surprisingly well-made film that tells the story of Bart Millard, the fellow who wrote the title song after a childhood plagued by an abusive father.

The song touched many people who were in Bart's situation. As a Christian dinosaur, it was obvious God used Bart's experiences to create a healing song.

The movie started me thinking about my own "career" as a fine artist. I've tried for a long time to turn it into a full-time, bill-paying job -- without success. I kept asking myself if painting was something I was meant to do or not.

That's when I have to ask myself what God's purpose is when He gives artistic / creative people the gift of loving the visual arts, music, writing, whatever so much that the person feels a need to create art.

The Bible makes it pretty clear that artistic ability is granted by God (it's in Exodus -- more on that another time). Yet -- the Lord never promised that we as artists would be financially successful at it, or even artistically successful with it.

But I do believe we honor Him by using our creative gifts, whether it sells or not. This is a point I often forget when I'm feeling discouraged and want to quit the art thing entirely. I don't think God wants me to quit painting. Keep creating, even if He is the only One who ever sees it. If it sells someday, great. But for reasons known only to Him, some artists will profit from their skills, and many others won't.

So for now, the plan is keep painting for as long as I can, until I ran out of canvases and panels to paint on. I may retrieve some unsold paintings that I could white out and paint something different on them. When I'm TOTALLY out of paint and / or surfaces...well, I'll have to see what happens next.

The Bible verse for dinos like me to live by is from 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do*, do all to the glory of God."

*That includes painting!

Mark Junge
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com



 

The Dance

The Dance is my latest painting -- only slightly surreal this time as compared to my other surrealistic paintings.

The Dance                              11" x 14" / 28cm x 36cm

The image was inspired by a Greek folk dance class I happened to be watching many years ago. (The bubbles were not there, of course).

So what does it mean? As usual, I prefer to leave that up to the viewer. Some friends thought it's a reference to togetherness, solidarity among women, women's rights, racial equality, on and on.

Some day, I'll need to find a gallery or show where the public may view the paintings in real life -- for those who need some surreal moments in their lives!