Sonoran Desert Moon

Sonoran Desert Moon is the latest in my never-ending series of desert paintings!

The size is 18" x 24" / 45.7cm x 61cm, a size that was always my favorite size, but I don't tend to work that "big" anymore.

The scene is in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ, looking toward the Sonoita Mountains of Mexico. (I've seen the mountain range spelled "Sonoyta" -- I don't know which is the favored spelling). I sort of thinned out the vegetation somewhat, and I've never had the pleasure of seeing the view from a bird's-eye perspective.

In any case, I followed a 19th century Hudson River School tradition by painting the landscape this way. I added cloud shadows and a quarter moon that is partially obscured by clouds. (I actually painted in more clouds than I had intended to, but I decided to leave them. Maybe I'll do another piece similar to this, but with fewer clouds).

Enjoy!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Nurse Tree

A nurse tree is one that provides shelter and a certain level of protection for other young plants; in this case, a saguaro cactus. Here, a palo verde tree in bloom offers shade to the cactus, enabling it to grow to a large size without getting burned in the scorching desert sun. (The tree is also giving shade to a desert cottontail bunny-rabbit!)

The Nurse Tree    8" x 10"/20cm x 25cm

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Desert Adobe

Desert Adobe is a painting where my imagination took over. The distant mountains are based loosely on the Coxcomb Mountains of Joshua Tree National Park, CA. But the rest of it, including the house, are figments!

I wanted to create a sense of aloneness. Would someone living here ever feel lonely? Is the house even occupied, or is it abandoned? Who knows?? I'll leave that up to the viewer!

Desert Adobe                           8" x 10"/20cm x 25cm

Alone in the desert! Enjoy!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Finished the Joshua Tree Scene!

I mentioned last time I was working on a scene from Joshua Tree National Park, and I posted the photo I was using as a reference. Well, it's finished!! I even included a desert cottontail bunny-rabbit, which I haven't done in a while since it's a little hard to paint them when the artwork is small!

One Desert Morning                                               18" x 24" / 45.7cm x 61cm

Detail -- the Bunny-Rabbit!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Still Painting -- Slowly!

 Here it is, June already, and the year is almost half over!! Good grief!!

Late last month I went into nearby Joshua Tree National Park before the heat would set in and dry up whatever wildflowers were left. Even so, there weren't as many as I had hoped, but I still got some awesome material for more paintings.

I'm working on one now, although I'm being rather pokey about it. I seem to have developed a major lazy streak!! (But then -- after being a workaholic for so many years in college and after, I think I'm entitled).

This is a hill I'm painting numerous times before, each a little different from each other:

(The road, of course, won't be included in the painting!)

Continuing the continuation!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

More paintings from the Eclipse Trip

 I've mentioned before: in April we took a trip to San Antonio, TX to see the total solar eclipse. Well, it was cloudy and all we really saw was the darkness that fell during totality.

But: I did manage to collect material coming and going that would turn into paintings! One of these is Texas! that shows the beautiful Hill Country of that state. Another piece, Desert View, shows the Arizona desert when your back is to Picacho Peak near Tucson. (I didn't include the I-10 freeway or the buildings that are actually out there!)

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Texas!     11" x 14"/ 27.9cm x 35.6cm

Desert View      8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm

I STILL want to do a painting of the eclipse itself, but I think I'll take a break from making paintings of this trip and work on some other ideas that have been kicking around in my head for a long time.

Stay tuned!!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

The Eclipse Trip

Well, we made the pilgrimage to San Antonio, Texas to see the total solar eclipse on 8 April. But -- it was overcast, and we only saw partial eclipses when the cloud cover thinned a bit. Oh, well. At least when totality hit, it got dark. That was an amazing experience!

I expect I'll do a painting of how the eclipse looked if we had journeyed an hour or two outside of San Antonio (where people got a clear view). Otherwise, we did see lots of great scenery that I've already finished two paintings of, plus a piece which is almost finished. Here are the two I've completed. (Click on the images to enlarge):

Picacho Peak                   11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm

Enchanted Garden     11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm

"Picacho Peak is in Arizona, and Enchanted Garden is a scene featuring the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, New Mexico. I hope to get these paintings on my website soon. (The URLs are down below). I should mention: we saw a LOT of turkey vultures when we were traveling; thus, the paintings have (or will have) at least one vulture in the sky!

More to come. The trip did seem to energize my desire to paint more (even if I don't really know what I'm going to do with them!)

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com