Marauder

I was able to get a quick photo of this hawk sitting on one of the water pans we have outside for the wild birds and bunnies. (I had to shoot through venetian blinds--if I would have gone to an unobstructed window, the hawk would have flown off long before I could have gotten the shot). As near as I can tell, this is a Swainson's hawk, not yet fully mature.

I mentioned once before that when you feed (and/or water) the prey, you feed the predators as well. These hawks know the routine -- the critters gather around before sunset, when I put out rabbit pellets for the bunnies and scratch for the quail and doves. I'm sure there's nothing a hawk likes better than to see a concentration of goodies in the open, all in one small area. (Of course, the #1 thing a hawk likes is to catch and eat one of these goodies!)

Most of the time, the quail and doves see the hawks coming and take cover under cholla cactus long before the predators can snag the prey. But on occasion, a hawk gets lucky -- and we witness what my wife calls "a wildlife moment," when the cycle of life turns a little more in it's never-ending revolution.

This day, all the hawk got was a drink of water -- and the other critters lived another day.

A Rainbow of Stone

I've been working on a painting of Rainbow Bridge, similar to this photo I shot just before Memorial Day of this year. I set the painting aside to finish up some small pieces that needed to be finished ASAP.

I've seen lots of pictures of the Bridge. What never comes across in photographs is how BIG the bridge is! In this view, an adult would be too small to be visible if s/he was standing directly under it. My job as a painter will be to paint the scene in a way where it's obvious the Bridge is still over 1/2 mile away and is a large formation.

Hopefully, I'll finish the painting later this coming week. We'll see if I succeed in conveying not only the beauty of the place, but the enormity of this rainbow in stone.

Wotta View Mr. Keys Had!!

I love Keys View in Joshua Tree National Park. Lots of potential for doing paintings!!

Keys View is named for Bill Keys, a pioneering type who settled and worked in what is now the Park. The distant mountain is Mt. San Jacinto, part of makes the desert a desert by blocking rain-carrying clouds that come from the west (which is to the right).

Someday, I need to paint this place. Many times over!!

eBay Paintings

Sometimes I paint small (8" x 10"/20cm x 25cm) paintings for the express purpose of putting them on eBay and seeing how they do with this online auction. Most of the pieces I put there do sell; a few do not.

In general, autumn landscapes (like the one to the right) and desert scenes do reasonable well. The few Colorado views I've painted haven't sold at all!

It's hard to figure out what collectors might be interested in, so I try to follow the old artist's adage -- just paint what you want, and don't think about the marketplace when you do. That can be a hard bit of advice to follow, but I try!

As a sidenote: it's likely I'll stop placing paintings on eBay and sell them directly from my Website (which just happens to be http://www.southwestspaces.com). I'll need to create a page just for this purpose -- it's on the agenda! Someday. When I have time. (Yeah, right!!!)

Art Rocks

A Thing from space! An uncouth being, risen from the dead for Halloween!

No, it's just another petroglyph. Like the other petroglyph I shared, this one is also in Joshua Tree National Park, not far from the previous one.

But as before, how do we know what this rock art means? How accurate is the depiction? What if the ancient artist simply rendered what s/he saw? Does the thought make you wonder what else might exist among us, possibly unseen by our modern-world eyes?

Welcome to rock art, where art rocks!

Portrait in Rock? Or...?

Whoa!!! It's autumn, and here's a picture of a football!

No, wait -- maybe that's a mask, with a big frown, furled eyebrows and faint eyes and nose.

Maybe it's a portrait of an extraterrestial.

Hard to say. It's one of the petroglyphs in Joshua Tree National Park. I doubt that the ancient ones who made this rock carving knew what a football was, and we today can only guess as to its meaning -- if it has a "meaning" at all. Maybe it was simply the equivalent of a modern-day doodle, as we might scribble on a piece of paper (a much easier process than chiseling into rock!) when we're feeling a little bored.

I'm sure I'll say this again, but sometimes I wish I had a time machine. There are SO many things I'd love to know. Of course, having a TM would open up the possibility of changing things in the past that could affect the world today.

Maybe it's safer just to guess about the past ... and keep alive our wonder and amazement about things we can't really know about.

Art in Cyberspace

Ahhh...I finally got around to updating my Website (which, in case you missed it, is http://www.southwestspaces.com).

I now have "Add to Cart" and "View Cart" buttons beside the paintings, making it easy for N-E-1 to acquire one of my desert or western landscape paintings. I'm always excited about the idea of someone adopting one of my paintings. For a small adoption fee, of course!

Doing all this has definitely cut into my painting time, but in these economic times, I realize I need to spread the ol' eggs around into as many baskets as possible.

So the next step might be to figure out how to increase my presence in search engine results, which won't be easy. If you Google "desert paintings" or "desert art," you will get literally millions of hits -- and I'm not even in the top 100 pages of hits! It may be too late in the Internet game to wiggle my way closer to the top, but I gotta try anyway. It'll definitely take time -- that's why I need to get things moving NOW.

See ya in cyberspace!