San Gorgonio

 Mt. San Gorgonio is one of the two mountains that cause this area to be a desert. It, along with Mt. San Jacinto and the associated mountains, form the "rain shadow" that makes the rain fall on the coastal side of the mountains, but tends to exclude rain from here; hence, desert.

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San Gorgonio is also the title of my latest painting:

The size is 11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm. This piece will be a "thank you" gift to a couple that helped us out while The Wiffee was in a nursing facility. (By the way, she's out now and is doing fine). Sometimes the yellow flowers don't photograph as prominently as they appear in the painting, but hopefully, you get the idea.

Meanwhile, painting will be interesting for a while -- the lens implants following my cataract surgery have developed a cloudy film, giving everything a dreamy look. Treatment is fast and easy -- laser treatment. But getting in to see the ophthalmologist has been quite a challenge! Soon, I hope!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Paul Gauguin

For a lo-o-n-n-g-g time, I've loved things Polynesian. But now I've going to commit an act of sacrilege. Maybe even heresy! 😮

Paul Gauguin was an artist who lived and painted in Tahiti. He focused on the vahines there more than, say, landscapes. Fine. Except -- I never got into the style he preferred. In short, I'm not a Paul Gauguin fan!!

I think he had the skills to work in a more academic way, although I could be wrong. A detail below from one of his paintings, Two Tahitian Women (1899) is actually kind of nice, and it appears he was capable of rendering faces.

The painting as a whole, however, just doesn't work for me. The classical realism approach doesn't call as much attention to itself as the subject and workings do, and if handled right, can elicit powerful emotional responses. That's where MY interests lie.

Two Tahitian Women       Paul Gauguin,1899-detail

Two Tahitian Women         Paul Gauguin

Images like the one below speak to me much more powerfully:

A Girl Defending Herself Against Eros
William Adolphe Bouguereau,1880

Mark Junge
www.MarkJunge or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

 

For a Future Painting of Glen Eyrie, Colorado

 I saw the following painting by my art hero, Thomas Moran, when we lived in Colorado Springs, CO during the '90s:

The title is Glen Eyrie, Garden of the Gods. These are two separate and adjacent properties in Colorado Springs, and I always wanted to do a painting like this.

Trouble is: Glen Eyrie is privately owned by the Navigators, a Christian parachurch organization and book publisher. I never had a chance to go there looking for the site that Moran painted.

Over the years, I've been looking online for photos that might help me make a similar painting to Moran's. And I FINALLY found it on Google Maps!!

Here is the pic:

As you can see, it appears to be close to the spot where Moran made his sketches and watercolor drawings. The spire is called Echo Rock and is actually a short fin of sandstone that we're seeing on edge. Moran's painting has a few changes from reality, but that gives ME a chance to paint a scene similar to his while making it truly my own.

Looks like Moran had to do some significant climbing to get to this spot -- I never could have done that!!

Hope to start on it soon! Wish me luck/pray for me!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Telling the Story

When I got going in the art biz, I assumed if people liked the art, they would just buy it if it was in their budget. Well...some people do, many do not.

I read an online article about factors that make art saleable besides the image, style or other stuff about the art itself. The artist him/herself is a big factor, as is the "story" behind the painting.

According to the article, "the art speaks for itself" isn't good enough for collectors. They want the other things, too. The author used the example of forgeries -- accurate copies of existing artwork that only experts can tell are forgeries. Same images, only the "stories" are different -- and that's why a forgery would never sell for the price of an original masterpiece except under fraudulent circumstances.

By extrapolation, the same principle applies to original works that are NOT forgeries. I knew an artist from somewhere in Africa who did colorful, ethnic figurative paintings, and the artist had very detailed explanations of what every part of the image represented -- an actual story. Buyers loved it, and he sold like crazy!

I, on the other hand, could only explain that this desert landscape painting is in so-and-so place, and I liked the place so much, I wanted to paint it. Frankly, I never knew what else to say, and I couldn't figure out how to apply what my African artist friend said about his work.

I can't say how much of a problem this has been for me in the past. Where I live in southern California, impressionism tends to be more well-received than traditional/classical realism. I still have an online presence, but I no longer try that hard to sell paintings. I paint what I want to paint and take it more slowly.

And that's actually OK!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Desert and...the Fairy?!?

The desert and the fairy. Well, not at the same time -- everyone knows fairies lives in lush green landscapes, not arid, hot deserts!! (Although I did once paint a desert fairy cozying up to a bunny!)

First, the desert. This is Desert Visions, a scene from Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA. It's 11" x 14" / 28cm x 35.6cm:

Love those "Vast Spaces of the Southwest"!!

As for the fairy, well, I started on her months ago and then set her aside to start and finish some other paintings. Then I decided it was time to finish her!

Fairy by Moonlight -- as you can see, here we have a fairy in deep contemplation about...umm, whatever it is fairies contemplate about.😀  Size is 08" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

So many paintings to do, so little time!! 'Bye for now -- talk with you next time!! Stay cool!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

C Diff

 Oh, the joys of C. diff.

In case you haven't heard of this, C. diff is short for Clostridium difficile, a group of bacteria that gets into your colon (or may already be there) that is typically outcompeted for resources by all the other bacteria in one's gut.

However, too often, going through a round of "broad-spectrum" antibiotics -- antibiotics that weaken or kill almost all bacteria except C. diff -- removes the competition and allows the bad bugs to multiply and cause major diarrhea, and sometimes can damage the colon. The condition itself is referred to as C. diff.

The Wiffee had a tooth extracted last month, and her dentist put her on a round of clindamycin to prevent an oral infection. (A "prophylactic" use of antibiotics -- never a good idea, in this retired microbiologist's opinion!) And guess what? Now she has C. diff!! Clindamycin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic and, I discovered, is especially notorious for setting a patient up for C. diff.

So -- I've been more of a caretaker than an artist for about 1.5 weeks, and we're both running out of steam. We've been advised to place The Wiffee in an assisted care facility until this is over with -- at my age and condition, it really is more than I can handle, particularly since diarrhea and not eating much has weakened her considerably.

C. diff can be a recurring disease, but we're hoping that won't be the case here. Anyone who wants to pray for us and especially for her -- please! Feel free!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Scanning electron micrograph of Clostridium difficile

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci,

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly known simply as Leonardo da Vinci, was the ultimate Renaissance Man -- artist, engineer, architect, scientist. (Da Vinci was NOT his last name -- in Italian, it means "of Vinci", the town in which he was born).

Even people who are not that excited about art have heard of him. And that he's the one who painted the famous Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa

Frankly, however, I never understood why this particular painting has received the notoriety that it has. It must be the most famous painting on the planet -- but why? I mean -- it's a beautifully done piece, but for whatever reason, it just doesn't grab me and pull me in. I've seen portraits that move me much more than Mona Lisa.

It may well be an image of Leonardo in drag -- there are theories about that. And her "mysterious smile" -- what's that all about? She has a hint of a smile -- so what? We ALL do from time to time!

So -- what am I missing? What makes Mona Lisa so special in people's eyes?

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com