No Dumb Bunnies HERE!!!

I'm a bad boy. I put food out for the wild critters around here -- rabbit pellets for the bunnies and chicken scratch for the quail. There are certain places where I put each of these food items.

Of course, the critters don't always eat just "their" food, and that's especially true of the bunnies. Given the choice, they would rather eat scratch than pellets; however, if that was all I put out, the long-earred varmints wouldn't get much of a snack: they eat one kernal at a time, while the quail rapidly peck and eat the grains, managing to swallow between pecks. The quail would clear the area of scratch while the poor bunnies would get only a little.

But it's fun watching how the bunnies have changed their behavior over time. I put the scratch in an old Cool Whip container and toss the stuff one handful at a time. The bunnies used to run out to get it as soon as I threw it -- and got pelted with grain and corn, which probably doesn't feel very good.

Now, they wait on the side and run out between throws, and they'll run to an area that I've already thrown to. That, in turn, makes it easier for me to avoid hitting them with scratch.

These bunnies ain't dumb!

MORE Autumn!!

Except this time, it's the Colorado mountains, not the desert; and it's a painting, not a photograph.

As with the last painting I posted ("Cliffs of the Green River"), the painting is not entirely a literal rendition -- I put several different views togehter into one image (guess you could say I "Photoshop'ed it").

The mountains are the Sneffels Range, somewhat north of Telluride, CO; and the peak to the left of center is Mount Sneffels. Mt. Sneffels is one of Colorado's "14ers," meaning it's 14,000 or more feet high. (That's 4.3km to you metric folks). The area depicted is the Dallas Divide, a place that's filled with aspen, spruce and red oak. Catch it at the right time of year (usually mid-late September), and you'll see it in spectacular fall glory.

Fall in the Desert #2

This photo was taken a few minutes before the one in the previous post. It doesn't really show seasonal clues, but I like the overlapping mountains -- a common sight in the desert.

Fall in the Desert #1

Many parts of the country have definite seasons. You can look at a picture and easily guess the season by the way the natural elements look. In the desert, the seasons have their differences, but the differences are subtle, and you have to know what to look for.

I took the attached photo this afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park. In many ways, the picture could have been taken at any time of the year, and it would look virtually the same as this one. But this photo holds two small clues that reveal what season it is:

(1) the rusty-red seedheads of wild buckwheat dot the landscape; admittedly, these can persist pretty much throughout the year;

(2) the real clue, a little hard to see in this view, but it's there -- the rabbitbrush is in bloom with goldenrod-yellowish flowers. Rabbitbrush is an autumn-blossoming shrub common in many places in the West.

Subtle, huh?

Autumn, Art and Other Kinds of Seasons

Tonight was the first gallery ArtWalk of the season in the desert community where I have a number of paintings. The attendence was low, I'm sure because: (1) tonight was also the VP debate (Biden-Palin) on TV, and; (2) not all of the seasonal/part-time residents are back in the area yet.

However, I did have an opportunity to speak with some of the gallery people I network with. I heard hopeful comments from a couple of gallery directors--sales should be good since many of their clientele are people who are not as affected by the current economic situation. In fact, their art sales seem to be continuing in spite of the financial conditions we hear so much about these days. As a full-time artist whose day job is making and selling art, that's good news for me. I have to remain positive as the season begins in the desert.

Ahhh...autumn and art sales -- two great seasons!

Homage to a Hero

Well, a painting hero of mine, anyway!

Nineteenth century American artist Thomas Moran created many paintings showing Toll Gate Rock and other formations in what is now Green River, WY. I had an opportunity to visit the area myself last year, and the attached image shows MY rendering of Green River.

Like Moran, I didn't make an exact copy of what the place looks like. Each of the formations exists and is accurate, but not all of the formations are present in the same view. But, also like Moran, sometimes going for the feel and the spirit of a site is more important than a mechanically-accurate approach. In this case, I agreed with Moran.

It's a special place, and I hope to do more paintings of it as well as go there again (hopefully in the afternoon next time-- the lighting would have been nicer then) so I can do even more paintings!

Art and Horses

This weekend The Wiffee and I went to the Los Angeles County Fair , a fair that is larger than most state fairs and certainly larger than most/all county fairs. One can see and do all kinds of things there, but my personal favorites are the art show (no duh!!!) and the draft horse show.

This year, the two shows had something in common -- the art show featured artwork about horses! So besides spending hours watching those big boys and girls trotting their stuff around the ring, we saw many examples of horses depicted in various art forms. (I guess I'll have to do some paintings of horses some day).

The photo on the left shows a horse that is not a draft horse but happens to be in my favorite coloring -- a paint horse (appropriate for a painter like me!) The other picture appeared in the art show and is a reproduction of horses from cave paintings in Lascaux, France.

Art and horses -- the best of this world!