Art is a Jealous Mistress

Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider, and should be wise in season and not fetter himself with duties which will embitter his days and spoil him for his proper work.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


OK -- I hope I'm not THAT bad. But the first five words of Emerson's brief observation certainly rings true with me.

If one is really serious about art and trying to make each work the best work one he/she ever done, it must be practiced a LOT. One must give up everything to be an artist -- or so I've heard. An artist can't become good in his/her craft by taking the casual approach.
 

But then there's this: Matthew 6:24 (KJV) -- No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (My emphasis).

Mammon, in this case, is a reference to money, but it can be anything that becomes #1 in our lives. I don't think art comes before God in my life, but it is pretty important, save for those times when I feel fed-up with art and the art world.

And then there's the issue of trying to sell art -- another entire source of stress and frustration. Whether paintings sell or not, I have to keep working -- either to replace the items that sold, or trying to find paintings that people are willing to buy.

I've also learned that selling art is not as simple as "paint what they like and they'll buy it." Having a "following" -- a certain amount of fame -- tends to be a major component of an artist's success. This has been a little out of my reach, unfortunately. And in some cases, painting in the current trend of decorator colors -- matching the sofa -- is important, too. When you paint in a classical way as I like to do, color matching has nothing to do with it. But try convincing decor-orientated buyers of that!

So in short -- art has taken over my life, but I almost can't afford to do it anymore. Art is a jealous mistress. One must give up everything to be an artist.

That includes any semblance of financial stability and, perhaps, sanity!

By the way -- these paintings are available for purchase at Crystal Fantasy in Palm Springs, CA. Stop by or contact them soon. Don't wait too long!

The Enchanted Realm

For desertophiles like me, most of the desert is an enchanted realm. But in this case, it's also the title I gave to my latest painting of Joshua Tree National Park in California.

The Enchanted Realm                                                                         18" x 24"

I was in this spot a couple of times (although I may not return -- the desert has a delicate layer of cryptobiotic soil -- "dirt" + microorganisms -- that is disturbed easily by hiking on it and that can take years to heal). The first time I was there, a neat cloud shadow spread across the land as you see it here.

I added some minor touches of my own, but I was so moved by the way nature painted this magical place, I felt it didn't need much help from me.

I use "The Vast Spaces of the Southwest" as my tagline. This scene is a perfect example of what I love about the desert and all of that distance that seems to touch infinity. It's a place where one can go and be in touch with the universe because we can see so much of it here. Not intergalactic space, obviously, but just -- big spaces and small us!

Sometimes I Long for the Old Days

Sometimes I long for the old days. With photography, that is.

In many ways, digital photography has been a real blessing -- no film, no processing, no darkrooms, instant results (if the pic didn't turn out, you can do a re-shoot on the spot). And, of course, the images are immediately website/Internet-friendly with minor tweaking. Even infrared photography is so much easier to deal with, as in the following picture:

What bothers me is: all of the 35mm cameras and accessories that are just sitting in a large camera bag and a box. I put a LOT of money into getting the best items that were available for my Minolta X-700 (and XGM) cameras, including zoom lenses, fixed-focal lenses, closeup extension bellows and two lenses to use with it, slide copier... I never totalled up how much $$$ I spent on all of it. But now it all just sits there.

Meanwhile, I'm using digital cameras that were affordable and they do the job (mostly), but they can't begin to compare in quality to my 35mm setup.

Oh, well. There's a season for everything, I guess. Maybe someday the 35mm season will return.

Goin' Down a Side Canyon

Goin' down a side canyon. Wow -- ah reckin' that sounds all western 'n' such -- something a desert/western landscape artist would do.

No -- in this case, it's about developing alternative ways of selling art-related items.

Does this look like impressionism to you? I hope it's close. Impressionism seems to be the favorite art style in southern California, along with abstract and all kinds of avant garde stuff. Frankly, sales of traditional landscapes just don't happen around here.

So I'll continue to paint desert and western scenes as time allows, but I've been thinking: I've got literally thousands of 35mm slides and color negatives of places we've visited over the years. I don't have a high-quality film scanner, so I would not be able to achieve high-resolution digital images to make into posters.

But I do have software called PhotoPlus (from serif.com), similar to Adobe PhotoShop. It has many features I've rarely used -- maybe I need to start!

As in the above image. It's my painting, A Place of Wonder, that I turned into an impressionistic artwork by the mere click on a button.

I figure I can mask the relatively poor resolution of the scan of a slide using the effects and then make it large enough to produce a print -- which I would do via print-on-demand services such as FineArtAmerica.com and deviantArt.com (no link directly to my work at this time). And this way, I can offer low-cost alternatives to original pieces that maybe are too realistic and detailed for some folks, anyway.

I have a number of effects and alterations available to me besides the "impressionistic" one you see above. The "Watercolor" option gives a blurry, dreamy effect that I like -- but probably not for desert scenes. But a redwood forest...o-o-h-h, yes!

And if this works beyond my wildest dreams, I know of software I can buy at a discount (being a P/T college professor and all) that would expand my horizons even more! But first things first.

I already have the slides and computer tools I need to do this -- good, since we're pretty low on $$$ right now. Wish me luck on this side canyon excursion.

The Holidays Are Comin', the Holidays Are Comin'!

Sometimes, when it gets to be around mid-September, I start to wonder if I'm part bird or something. I can't say I have a migratory instinct, but an excitement over the time of year seems to well up within me. Autumn (even if autumnal equinox hasn't hit yet) tends to put me in high gear. Just the thought of fall colors, Jack O' Lanterns, pumpkins, turkeys and Christmas flood my mind, and I get images of the beauty of this time. And it makes me want to paint artwork that shows what's in my head.

You may remember I essentially gave up hope of ever deriving a steady income from the sale of paintings. They just ain't being snatched up for whatever reason. But I have had the idea of developing an end-of-the-year holidays book -- possibly an e-book -- illustrated by me, painted during the height of the appropriate holiday when I'm feeling the most excited about those days.

So -- definitely Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. No New Years -- I tend to go into a funk after Christmas, and New Years finalizes the season too much. Hanukkah -- maybe. I'm not Jewish, but I've had SO-O many Jewish friends over the years (and even some Jewish girlfriends) and had been invited to Hanukkah parties and stuff -- I may include this celebration in the book as well. As for Kwanzaa -- I'm considering it, but I have absolutely no childhood memories or associations of Kwanzaa, so it would be hard for me to develop meaningful images of this time. It might increase my audience, but ... I dunno... I think I'm done painting for the market anymore.

Admittedly, the "holidays book," as I call it for now, has been in my head for years, and progress toward it has been slow. I don't know if I'm just old, out of shape, not exercising enough, or what -- but I just don't have the energy I used to have to do things like this. Maybe I'm just tired of art, period -- let's face it, I've had more negative than positive experiences with the art world, and it's possible I'm just fed up. Lost interest. Long-term depression (which I do struggle with). Utterly discouraged -- can't quite put my finger on the problem.

Well, let's hope I'll be able to get some work done on this project, although I don't think I'd ever make much money on an e-book like this, and painting isn't fun enough anymore to be a reward in itself. But let's hope, anyway.

A Season of Gold

A Season of Gold -- that's an apt description of the Colorado mountains when autumn hits! It's also the title of my latest painting, which I started months ago but had to set aside because of my summer teaching schedule.

A Season of Gold, 16" x 20"

The view is of Mt. Sneffels as seen from the Dallas Divide. This region lies between Ridgeway and Telluride, Colorado. (Ralph Lauren has a place somewhere out here -- the Double RL Ranch).

Those reddish shrubs out there could be a bright red, but for whatever reason, whenever I paint them that way, the red seems to kill the paintings. I'm gonna have to play with that some day so that I can put in all the fall color that this magical place produces.

I wanna go back there again. And stay there throughout the peak color time -- from mid-late September. (It doesn't last long in Colorado, but often, more color can be found simply by going lower in elevation).

Some day!

School Is Out, School Is Out

...the teacher let the monkeys out,
No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.

Well, I don't think it was THAT bad for my microbiology students at the local community college! In fact, many of them shuck hands with me after turning in their final exams, and one gal even gave me a thank you card. She said she was never a big participant in her previous classes, but apparently I encouraged her to speak up and answer my questions in class. (She was good at it, too -- almost always right). She felt I had helped her develop skills that will be with her for the rest of her life. (A few other students had told me some of their instructors made them feel stupid in class, which is sad).

So at least in a few cases, I guess I made a difference in the students' lives. I'm glad they let me know -- that really is a good feeling, and I know teachers live for those moments. Maybe teaching is my calling, not art which has been terribly frustrating to think of as anything resembling an income source.

As far as art goes, I now consider it a hobby with a possibility of making SOME money at it. But as far as putting lots of energy into trying to sell my artwork, well, the energy seems to be gone. I'm just out of gas. I have some paintings in a gallery/gift shop in Palm Springs, I have a print available on Fine Art America, and that may be it for selling efforts. As I often say nowadays -- "we'll see."

Meanwhile, I can't say when the next teaching opportunity will present itself, but hopefully it won't be another three years before I'm needed again.

 

Step One

I'm essentially over my cold, although I'm still coughing a lot and I feel tired all the time. Sigh... Maybe it's all part of getting old.

But I did take an important (to me) step in the art biz (such as it is) today...

I sent off a 4" x 5"/5cm x 7.5cm transparency of the painting, A Place of Wonder to have a digital scan made of it. The next step: having prints made!

I already have an account set up with Fine Art America, an outfit that makes prints to order. I may go through them, or I might look into alternative options -- I haven't quite figured out the best approach yet. Much will depend on whether or not Fine Art America can meet my needs as far as sizes and quality go.

We'll have to see how this image goes before I try any more. Prints/mass production seem to be the trend for marketing art today, but I'll still want to see how well it sells before I put a lot of $$$ into additional offerings.

We'll see...

TOO-O-O-O Busy!!!

Yikes! It sure got busy lately; sadly, too busy to make art!

First, I started teaching again, for the first time in almost three years, at the local community college. General Microbiology. Most of the students in my class are future nursing school students, which I like: I always get a nice bunch of people.

Class started two weeks ago. But then, ONE week ago, I came down with a (mostly) chest cold. Good grief!! You'd think a microbiologist would be able to avoid getting sick, but not necessarily. I didn't even go out or have contact with people at the time I would have contracted the virus! So I have no idea where I got it.

So, between teaching, preparing for class, grading papers and then being sick (and being just plain tired), I haven't been able to paint much. I hope that changes soon, but it may not until the semester is over -- six more weeks. (Summer Semester uses a compressed schedule, so it isn't as long as a "real" semester otta be).

Meanwhile, I'll keep fighting off this cold, enjoy getting an actual paycheck for awhile, and get back to painting ASAP. Be back soon!

A Cold Virus

"The Year's at the Spring..."

My latest painting is not my usual image of the southwestern desert. Although I want to continue produce scenes of the arid country I love, I sometimes feel that I need to have other types of landscapes, too (since -- believe it or not -- there ARE people who don't like the desert!!)

The Year's at the Spring -- All's Right with the World

I...uh, "borrowed" the title from a work by 19th century artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema who, in turn, may have adapted some lines from Robert Browning's Pippa Passes. It's springtime in the rolling hills north of San Luis Obispo, California -- specifically, this is the scenery of Buellton, Atascadero and Paso Robles in early April. In this ranch country, it's not unusual to see grazing horses (like these) or cattle. California valley quail are more elusive, but they're there -- if you don't see them, you'll hear them!

I'm producing paintings that will not be put up for sale for a while. I want to make sure I have a good collection of pieces to enter in art shows, and I also want to have high-quality digital images made so I can make giclée prints. That's an important angle of the art market I never really pursued.

And since I'll be teaching microbiology at the local community college this summer, I hope to be able to finance some of these art projects.

I think the painting above would look good as a print -- what do you think?

"Buy Art!!"

Sometimes, when I think I have extra time (not that I ever do, really) and I find an appropriate image online, I'll put together my own, personal "Buy Art!!" memes that I post on Facebook. My FB Friends, especially the artist ones, seem to enjoy seeing these.

Here are the memes I've made so far:

Hope you liked 'em!

The Many Resurrections of Godzilla

Sheesh...Jesus Christ was resurrected only once. Godzilla had many more reincarnations than that!

(Normally, I write about artwork and, especially, paintings, including my own. But Godzilla has certain artistic qualities that I like).

Godzilla's star in Hollywood's Walk of Fame

Specifically, the original Godzilla (its Japanese name was Gojira, a combination of the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale"). The movie was an allegory for the dangers of atomic power, filmed in the aftermath of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I suspect confronting this fictional monster must have had a tremendous impact on the Japanese psyche at the time, and destroying this force would have been seen as a victory, a way of overcoming the horrific power that destroyed the two cities.

The original movie had its human side, too -- the love triangle between the pretty gal (always wore a scarf in her hair), the scientist (with the eye patch) and another fellow -- I forgot what he did for a living. The woman chose the latter man, and the scientist committed a form of Hara-Kiri minus the cutting. (I never knew if he did this out of remorse for killing Gojira, losing his lady love, or some of both).

I was also impressed with the skillful use of editing to include actor Raymond Burr in the American version. Every scene in which he appeared, along with any Japanese actors, was added later, although -- in my opinion -- his presence didn't detract from the story. The footage when he appeared with the girl was also "faked" -- you never saw their faces at the same time. When you saw Burr's face, you saw only the back of her head, scarf on head. She was a stand-in, not the actor who starred in Gojira. Then, when the camera focused on her, Burr wasn't seen, and her English lines likely were probably unrelated to the Japanese lines she was actually reciting. I doubt many Americans could lip-read Japanese and never knew the difference.

(By the way, we never see the creature eating. What does one feed a humongous critter like that? )

Well, now there's a new version of Godzilla on the movie screens. I likely won't go to see it, because I already know I'd be disappointed if I did. The original Godzilla was more than simply a story about a huge dinosaur wreaking mass destruction of a city. It had powerful psychological overtones that the newer movie (or the one from 2000) probably lacks. (Of course, the Godzilla vs ___???___ movies, the Saturday morning cartoons et al were downright silly versions). I suspect it's just another action flick with dazzling special effects. Technically proficient, but not what I'd call "artistic" in terms of its emotional impact.

And ultimately, I hope we never again have to resurrect Gojira/Godzilla or anything else by detonating another nuclear weapon over any city or its people.



 

Spiders and Snakes

I'll be the first to admit: I don't like spiders! I'm a total arachnophobe -- and it doesn't bother me to say that. I hate their webs -- the kind one can walk into -- even more!! Thankfully, we don't get those species here in the desert.

I remember seeing a floral painting by a Dutch artist at the Getty Center in Los Angeles -- beautifully-rendered flower arrangement ... with a small web in the upper corner of the image with a spider on the web, and another hanging by a thread nearby. The spiders and web ruined the painting, as far as I'm concerned! If it were for sale and I had the money, I wouldn't buy that painting.

As you might guess, I've never painted any spiders in my works, and I never will.

By that same token, I've never painted any snakes either. Now, I'm NOT a snake-o-phobe. I rather like them, although I often feel badly for their victims. But I don't respond to the sight of a snake as I do a spider.

However, some people hate snakes the way I hate spiders. In fact, "spiders and snakes" is a phrase that places the critters together. Both are pretty creepy in people's minds.

But that's why I don't paint snakes. I would not want to ruin the viewing experience (especially for a potential customer) by placing a snake in the image area.

Nineteenth-century artist Thomas Moran (my #1 artist hero) created a large work showing the Grand Canyon in Arizona. In it, if you look carefully enough, is a small rattlesnake. Perhaps Moran was trying to tell us of both the beauty AND the dangers of the Wild West. (I never saw any spiders in the composition -- I assume TM didn't put any into the painting. Good decision, Tom!)

Well, maybe someday I'll do something like that. I know there are people who like snakes, even rattlesnakes (providing the rattlers don't get too close). I'm curious to know if such a painting would sell readily to snake lovers! And it would be a piece that I'd love to hang on my wall in case the painting didn't sell.

There would be any spiders in the artwork, however. ☺

On Waves of Sand

My newest painting -- On Waves of Sand, 20" x 24" / 51cm x 61cm.

 I wanted to show the beauty of the Coachella Valley sand dunes and the brief flash of color that occurs in the springtime -- IF the conditions are right. Mt. San Jacinto rises in the background, and the town of Palm Springs sits to the left and behind the mountain.

This is a wind-prone place, and dunes once covered the entire Valley. Sadly, development has cut the dunes to less than 1/5 of the area they used to occupy. Some of what's left is protected, but the fate of the endangered Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata) remains to be seen. These little guys (one is present in the painting) need the blowing sand and lots of space to survive in these harsh environments.

Sometimes the winds become severe windstorms, and enormous clouds of sand and dust rise in the distance. While admittedly a little hard on Valley residents, this is what happens in sand dune country. It's part of what makes this region as beautiful as it is. In a desert sort of way, I guess!

Good Friday

"The Crucifixion," Gustave Doré

Today is Good Friday. A dramatic piece showing a dramatic moment in history.

Those Fantastic Dutch Landscapes!

Landscape paintings from the Golden Age of Dutch Art are one of my favorite genres of artwork. Although not exactly desert-y (and this piece is 19th century), there's a lot I can learn from pieces such as this -- especially whenever I get around to painting other kinds of western landscapes, complete with trees and other stuff!

Landschap Met Watermolen En Veedrijvende Boeren, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, 1852

More Fairy Paintings

I love painting the desert, but sometimes ya jes' gotta paint fairies!

Emerald      12" x 12" / 30.5cm x 30.5cm

For some reason, the painting appears lighter here than it really is. I guess blogspot doesn't like dark artwork.

Anyway...enjoy!

Discovering the Hudson River School of Artists

Although you know me primarily as a maker of desert paintings, the start to the look I wanted to achieve began with a painting of the mountains.

In the Mountains,  Albert Bierstadt,  1867, 36-3/16" x50-1/4" / 91.9cm x 127.6cm

I saw this image (or another, very similar piece) in the early 1980s as a framed print at a shopping mall in a setup like a kiosk, except the prints were hanging on a windowless wall with portable walls jutting out at 90°. I was full into landscape photography at the time, until I saw this image. I loved everything about In the Mountains and realized I had never taken a photo that impacted me the way this item did.

Although I dabbled in painting, I had never seen views like this before. This type of art was never discussed in the college art-history classes I had taken. This was a totally new discovery for me -- I grew instantly and began seeking out more works like this.

I found them in time (no Internet then), and "discovered" other 19th century artists like Frederick E. Church, Thomas Moran and many others. These three became my "art heroes" and set me on an artistic path that I remain on to this day.

Of course, it would take me a long time before I could even begin to approach the sheer drama and emotional impact of paintings like In the Mountains. I think I've gotten much closer, and I continue to develop with every painting I make. I don't know if I'll ever achieve the mastery of landscape painting that these masters reached.

But I gotta try!

Open Skies, Open Spaces

I finally finished a painted I began before Thanksgiving, 2013! Between feeling chronically sleepy, upset over an upcoming molar extraction (that's done now) and holiday business, it really took me almost two months to get the final brush stroke applied!

Open Skies, Open Spaces     acrylic on canvas      20" x 24" 

Detail

The view shows Mt. San Jacinto, just west of Palm Springs, CA, with a redtail hawk soaring through the open air. This area is big on winds and sand, and small dunes fill the land.

I left out the signs of human habitation: the Union Pacific railroad track cuts across the mid/foreground, as well as the trees of Snow Creek Village which arise from the base of the cloud-shrouded hill to the right. I've seen historical photographs of this special place, and I much prefer the way it used to look.

Sadly, the desert is slowly filling in with objects that are gradually destroying the open spaces that make the desert what it is. One can only hope that natural beauty will some day be more important than money.

"Art Is Not for Matching the Sofa!"

"Art is not for matching the sofa!!!" I've heard this complaint from many artists who meet potential customers at art shows. Buyers may love a piece, but "it's the wrong color" and the people move on to find something different.

As southern California begins a new art show season, I thought I'd reproduce an article I wrote that appears on my website. (The image was scanned from a 35mm slide -- I wish I had a true digital version of the painting, but we didn't own any digital cameras at that time).

 Decorating with Art

 Back in 2004, my painting on the left (Golden on the Prowl with a golden eagle) was hanging in a Palm Desert, CA gallery. As you can see, the piece is mostly blue. It measured 48” x 60”/1.2m x 1.5m.

A couple came into the gallery, and the man was totally transfixed by the painting, studying it at length. Finally, the wife reminded him that there was no blue in the room that the artwork was intended for. So they moved on and walked away from a painting that obviously spoke to the husband in a powerful way.

Unfortunately, I suspect this happens a lot. For many, art is nothing more than a wall decoration that “ties the room together”: art’s only function is to repeat the colors used elsewhere in a room. How sad, especially for people like the husband who apparently loved Golden on the Prowl.

Years ago, I took some interior design classes in college. The instructor pointed out the wisdom of buying furniture and carpeting first with their more limited color choices, and choosing paint colors last due to the infinite numbers of hues available. I’d go one step further: buy the artwork that touches your soul in profound ways FIRST! Then get the furniture, carpeting and, lastly, the wall paint. Then the art will match the room, and you’ll have images that you will love to look at every single day of your life.

Or: go neutral with the wall and furniture colors, or think of the art as counterpoints to the furnishings, and don’t worry about matching the sofa!

Design programs on television treat art almost as an afterthought. No emotional response necessary. But it’s YOUR home or office. Fill it with beautiful things that make your life better just because you see them.

More Inspiration from Claude Lorrain

Here is another painting by one of my favorite painters of all time: Pastoral Landscape, Claude Lorrain, o/c, 38.25" x 51.25" (1638). (I think the original may be a little darker than this image).

Claude had a way of making balanced, harmonious and peaceful landscapes. In this case, he included the ruins of a Roman temple (I'd LOVE to see a scene like this!) on the left and, althogh hard to see here, there appear to be additional ruins in the distance across the river. Claude also liked to paint the skies of dawn or sunset; here, he didn't do the sky with his classic yellowish tones.

As a landscape painter who creates mostly desert scenes, it's hard for me to imagine doing paintings like Claude's. We just don't have those tall trees, hazy atmospheric conditions or, of course, Roman ruins. We have saguaro cactus, Joshua trees, palm trees and/or cottonwood trees under certain conditions, and clear, low-humidity air.

I guess if I want to paint like this, I'll have to branch out, more than I have, into other western landscapes. I may need to, anyway -- not everyone loves desert paintings (although I don't understand why not!)

So -- just give it time. I doubt I'll ever be the Claude Lorrain of the 21st century, but I'll just have to see what I can do!

Some New Drawings of the Desert

I've been drawing more than painting lately in my efforts to produce artwork that should be affordable to almost anyone. Here are two of the latest batch of drawings:

Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak                                                           18" x 24"

Pikes Peak is a painting I made back in 2006. I always liked the piece, but I felt it needed just a little more...perhaps a little tweaking.

So I tweaked it, and I (personally) think it looks better now.

Pikes Peak is the mountain west of Colorado Springs, CO. This view shows the mountain in early September after a storm covered the hill with snow. It's early morning, and this is how it appears if you visit the Garden of the Gods Club, named after the Garden of the Gods -- a series of red sandstone rocks and spires in the middle distance. Pikes Peak is one of Colorado's "14ers" -- the elevation at the top is at or over 14,000 feet above sea level.

Colorado has some spectacular scenery, and this area is certainly no exception

Saint Jacinto's Spring

My latest painting:

Primavera de San Jacinto (Saint Jacinto's Spring)                            20" x 24"

It's springtime in the desert! Mt. San Jacinto is west of Palm Springs, CA and is one of two mountain ranges that makes the desert what is is by blocking most rain clouds that arrive from the west.

This is the north-facing side of the mountain. I always loved the abrupt rising of the mountain from the flat plain, the result of earthquake activity that lifted this hunk of earth up into the air. The other side of "San Jac" has the rolling foothills that one expects with mountains, and also features green grass following the winter rains.

But this side receives little rain, and the vegetation shows it.

Still, the view takes on a rugged beauty all its own. This is the beginning of the California desert, and my own little desert world begins right here.

Welcome to Saint Jacinto's spring!

Inspirational Desert Paintings

It seems that I either haven't had much time for painting lately, and/or I've just been too tired. I started a desert painting that is taking forever to get done, and I had hoped to start and finish at least two, maybe three, smaller Halloween-themed artworks before the day actually arrives. I haven't even begun those pieces yet!

As an alternative, I'll post an image of a painting by an artist buddy, P.A. Nisbet. Some of his paintings appeared in an art magazine back in 1987, and they had a profound impact on me and the direction I was to take in my own art.

Magic Kingdom        P.A. Nisbet      oil/canvas       36" x 48"

This painting is one of those things that changed my live forever. It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but Magic Kingdom has a mysterious, spiritual quality to it that I hope I capture in my own paintings. However, when I'M the one making the art, I have to depend on others to tell me if I succeeded in capturing the feeling that elevates an image to more than just an illustration.

The area depicted in Magic Kingdom is the Pinacate region of Sonora, Mexico. Some of southern Arizona looks much like this. I'd love to visit this place, but a local naturalist wrote an article about the illegal drug activities that go on there and the efforts that the police make in trying to bring it under control. I wouldn't feel safe there, but maybe one day, Pinacate will once again return to being a place of sublime beauty and peace.

To see more of this artist's work, click here.

Drawing the Desert

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to make some small colored-pencil drawings that I could sell for a much lower price than my paintings. At this point, I've made a little over 20 drawings, and hopefully I can do a few more before Saturday. I'll be attending a local craft fair, which will be somewhat of a marketing test for the drawings. We'll see if selling lots of inexpensive drawings is more do-able than selling a few, expensive paintings.

Here are a few examples of what I've been up to. Each is 8" x 10" (20cm x 25cm) sketched on colored paper. None are titled or framed.

New Painting: "Silver Ledge"

I FINALLY finished a new painting that I was frantically working on to enter in an exhibit. I still gave the piece all of the TLC it deserved, but I think I've been painting more than I've been sleeping!

Silver Ledge, 18" x 24"

Silver Ledge is the name of the mine -- or what's left of it -- that sits a little south of Silverton, Colorado along the Million Dollar Highway (aka Hwy. 550). Behind the structures lies the sprawling Chattanooga Valley which used to hold the small town of Chattanooga (not to be confused with the one in Tennessee!). The town was destroyed in the late 19th century, but I haven't found a definitive reason for how that happened: it was either by avalanche, flood or fire. In any case, the town was never rebuilt and only a few buildings remain there today -- none visible from this vantage point.

Far in the distance sits Bear Mountain. Much of the region displayed the glorious golden yellows of fall aspen, but this view seemed to show few aspen and lots of Colorado blue spruce.

The Silverton area was known for producing lots of mines, many of them silver. But the Silver Ledge's primary commodity was tungsten. It also extracted smaller amounts of gold, silver, lead and zinc.

The painting shows how the mine looked the last time I was there -- September, 1997. I understand efforts were being made in 2010 by a preservation group to prevent further deterioration of the minehead and also to cleanup the tailings which were leaching lead, zinc and copper into Mineral Creek (which runs below the embankment on the left and off into the Valley).

I've been wanting to paint this image for almost seventeen years -- and I've finally done it! It isn't the desert, but the site is in southwestern Colorado and we can see lots of distance from this spot. So it fits my tagline which you would find on my website and on my business cards: The Vast Spaces of the Southwest!

More Inspiration!

As a landscape painter, I love it when I stumble across artworks that I've never seen before that manage to take my breath away once I "discover" them.

Curescanti Needle, Colorado
George Frederick Bensell, ca. 1875

This is one such painting. I had Googled images of Colorado paintings, and this is one of the items that came up. Curescanti Needle is located in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (one of the country's National Parks) near Montrose, Colorado. I suspect the artist took some liberties with how the place actually looked, but some 19th century painters did that -- they were more interested in capturing the mood of a place than re-creating every rock and tree that exists.

OK, it isn't a desert painting, but I still love it, and I DO paint Colorado scenes on occasion (in fact, I'm working on a Colorado painting now). The size is 66" x 48"/168cm x 122cm and is in a private collection. Lucky peeps!!

Very inspiring!!

Mojave Nocturne

Mojave Nocturne is the latest painting in my ongoing (never-ending?) series of desert paintings. The size is 14" x 11" / 35cm x 28cm, acrylic on panel:

 

It depicts Joshua Tree National Park at night as a full moon rises and shines through the clouds. I've always loved being in the desert under a full moon: the bare ground lights up more than grass or shrub-covered landscapes do, and the place takes on a special magic that must be experienced. And the Joshua trees appear as apparitions from a Halloween night, with many ghostly fingers and arms reaching out to grab you!

Still, in spite of those thoughts, the desert by moonlight isn't at all scary to me (unless one were to step on a rattlesnake in the darkness, but there are no snakes in this painting). The moon, the glowing clouds (when present) and the shapes against a starry sky have a beauty all their own.

Can you tell I love the desert?

Confusers

Sometimes I think "confuser" is a more accurate name for this gizmo than "computer."

I was having some problems with the thing and was concerned something really terrible happened -- hard drive crash or something -- and while most of my stuff is backed up, not ALL of it was.

So I took the confuser to a confuser repair place. The technician found the dial-up/fax modem (which I never used) was bad and removed it. He also uninstalled some extra anti-virus software which, I think, came with the confuser when I bought it in 2008.

Everything seemed fine, although I had a bit of a scare yesterday -- the confuser acted up again, just as it did before I took it in. I called the guy who suggested trying a different power supply or electrical outlet. I had already unplugged an external hard drive with a transformer from the surge-protected power strip I have everything plugged into. Guess what? The problem hasn't returned!

So -- either the surge protector is getting too old (and it IS old!), and/or the transformer for the external drive really was interrupting the power supply to the confuser itself.

Well, at least things seem OK for now. I'll plug the external drive into another outlet, and I may unplug the printers from the surge protector, too. And maybe buy another surge protector for the confuser.

And then maybe I can try to get back on schedule with blogging again!

Let's Have a Drawing!

No, no, no...not that kind of drawing. No pulling numbered tickets out of a hat to see who wins the prize!

I mean art drawings -- making an image with graphite or colored pencils!

While I can render pictures of objects using a pencil, it tends to be a utilitarian image...unlike many artists whose drawings are works of art unto themselves. There's something about the way they make lines and shading that are beautiful. I make just ... lines!

I'd like to fix that if I can. Following are some examples of drawings I'd like to be able make. Note: these drawings are NOT of my creation. The titles and creators' names appear under each image.

The Find, Charlene Brown

Barbara Palvin, Malwina Kozak

Natalie, Casey Childs

Head of a Muse, Raphael

I'd love to be able to make drawings like these! of course, I'd love to be good at drawing the face and human figure, too, but honestly: I don't have enough years of life left to learn that skill. One of these artists suggested copying master drawings to learn how to make the lines I want -- good idea. Copying the works of masters, both in drawing and in painting, used to be part of the learning curve for aspiring artists. One can learn SO much by doing that.

Maybe during this slow period of no sales and few paintings produced, THIS will keep me out of trouble!

Vent: Art competitions and Shows

I prefer to write about the more positive things in an artist's life, but -- as you might expect -- there are aspects that pull artists down. I guess that's true of all things, isn't it?

One my Facebook Friends who is also an extremely capable artist posted his opinions about art competitions. I hope he won't mind if I feature it here:


"In art competitions, the only valid criteria for judging should be the quality of the artwork, viewed with total objectivity and assessed impartially, solely on the basis of artistic merit. The identity of the respective artists competing should not be a factor, nor should the number of friends any entrant might have or how much effort he or she might have put into lobbying for votes. If I'm going to vote at all, it will be for the artwork that I see as the most worthy, no matter whose it is. Nothing personal."


I understand exactly how he feels. I've felt the same way about certain art exhibits/sales and posted my own comment:

  
"IMO, western art shows must be the worst when it comes to judging criteria. They often include "masters" in the show titles, but in reality, when you submit entries, they want lists of all the shows you've been in, or a list of articles that have been written about you,or a list of awards you've won -- stuff like that. In other words, they want to know how likely you are to be well-known and, thus, a good seller. Quality has little to do with it. It's popularity/fame/history of sales that they're looking for. "


It's something we artists have to put up with -- "adapt or die," as least as far as making it in the art biz is concerned. It's quite unfair and shouldn't be this way. But it is.

I really haven't decided how I want to deal with it all. I don't know that I have enough years of life left to accumulate the "stuff" that the competition/show sponsors ask for. But I know it's a part -- just one part -- of the reason why I've slowed down considerably in art: not only in creating it, but in selling it. It's far from being a level playing field, and maybe I'm getting too old to play this sport in a meaningful way anymore. (This pathetic economy doesn't help, either).

OK -- that's enough venting for now. On to more positive stuff.

Influences on My Art: How Desert Painting All Started!

How, you may be asking yourself, did Mark Junge get into painting desert scenes? I mean, he could have gone in almost any direction with his artwork. So what got him going in desert painting?

Funny you should ask. It really goes back to my pre-painting. My family and I were watching Walt Disney's weekly Sunday night program (Wonderful World of Disney?), and they broadcast a program called "How the West Was Lost" with the esteemed scientist, Ludwig von Drake hosting. In the program, von Drake pointed out how music had changed and that it used to be beautiful and calming.

Then the show featured an animated sequence accompanying Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers singing Blue Shadows on the Trail. The animation highlighted the desert changing from dusk to nightfall, with cactus in bloom, tumbling tumbleweeds, hopping bunnies and a family of quail scurrying around. (The feature appears on YouTube.com, although not with the best visual quality, here).

Everything about the tune and visuals got to me: the desert scenery, the critters, the song -- not the lyrics themselves, but the whistling and "whooping" that take place in the background, simulating animal sounds. The images stayed with me for years.

Then -- my brother told me the little cartoon was actually the intro for another Disney project: an animated feature film called Pecos Bill. I looked up and ordered the DVD that had Pecos Bill (and some other shorts). There it was! It's the only thing I've ever watched on the DVD. Then it occurred to me to see if it is on YouTube, and it is! So here I am, writing about it.

Disney has made other cartoons that feature desert scenery -- others where I actually like the artwork better (Pluto: The Legend of Coyote Rock and The Coyote's Lament, both also on YouTube). But Blue Shadows was the first inspirational piece that started me down that road, and the other animated pieces (and desert paintings I began to see) fueled the fire. Not to mention trips to what was then called Joshua Tree National Monument.

I feel like I owe the Disney folks something. I can't imagine the original animators had any idea how they were going to influence a young kid who would someday want to capture the immerse beauty of one part of God's world.


As you know, you can see my stuff on my website: http://www.SouthwestSpaces.com or http://www.MarkJunge.com.

Influences on My Art: Claude Lorrain

I sometimes mention Claude Lorrain as one of the artists who impacted my own painting in a big way. So who the heck IS this guy?

Claude was born Claude Gellée and was (in my opinion) a fantastic landscape painter from 17th century France. If you're interested in the details of his life, I'll let you read his bio which appears on the J. Paul Getty Museum's website rather than go into all that here. But I will tell you he made landscapes that seem to offer perfect harmony and composition -- places where people work and live in Arcadian beauty. Claude was known for his golden yellow or orange skies, making beautiful scenes even warmer and more inviting.

 Sunset or Landscape with Argus Guarding Io

Pastoral Landscape (1638)

I'm somewhat limited in my ability to emulate what Claude did in his landscapes. Here in the desert, except for cottonwood trees, I don't have the advantage of being able to place nice, big, full, lush trees against the sky. What we have are short Joshua trees, saguaro cactus, palo verde and ironwood "trees" (the latter two are more like big shrubs than trees). And cottonwoods are found only where water is near or on the surface.

Oh, well. I'll make the best of it. Claude's spirit compels me to do so.

Moving Along...

I returned from the art show safe and sound, and I think all I've done since then is sleep! I guess I really should be moving along.

No sales...apparently, the economic recession/depression hasn't recovered that much after all. A few artists sold a few items, but overall, most of us sold some inexpensive prints or nothing at all.

As you might expect, it's a bit discouraging to put in the time and money (about $500 total) to do a show and leave with nothing but a goose egg (i.e., -0-), but at least it isn't as though everyone sold but me -- that would have been REALLY discouraging!

Still, I felt comfortable among those folks, and I already expressed an interest to the show's organizer that I'd like to do it again next year -- provided I have the $$$ to invest in it.

Here was my setup. The Show provided the lights, chairs (except for my folding chair on the right), pegboards and hooks, and I provided the paintings! I also took a picture with buyers milling around in the aisleways, but frankly, the crowds were a bit sparse this year.

 But at least I managed to get in some picture-taking of the countryside coming and going. For a desert-dweller like me, it's easy to get green-deprived! This view is a little north of Buellton, CA along US Hwy 101. Besides the oaks and green grass, this spot had LOTS of blue-flowering lupine (which, I believe, are what the Texans call bluebonnets).

I can see some paintings coming out of the photos I took, most likely with some creative rearranging of elements while keeping the overall flavor of the area. I think that in the end, the trip will end up being worthwhile, if only because of the new paintings I'll be making.

God-willing, see you in Paso Robles next year -- with desert paintings AND central coast paintings!

In the Colorado Wilds

In the Colorado Wilds is the title of my newest painting -- 18" x 24" acrylic on panel.

This is looking toward the Needle Mountains south of Silverton, with some liberties taken on the Animas River (as far as I know, there are no waterfalls on this river). Pigeon Peak is to the distant right, just 28 feet short of being a fourteener (and therefore isn't climbed as much as 14ers are). I was going to put a deer on the outcropping on the lower left, but The Wiffee talked me out of it!

This is one of the few non-desert paintings that I'll be taking with me to the Cattlemen's Western Art Show in Paso Robles, CA next weekend. Even though I still feel my desert art is my strongest, I also know some people -- for some strange reason -- are not into Southwestern desert scenes. Hard to believe, but it seems to be true!

It's obviously autumn in the Colorado mountains, although the yellows never look as bright as they should in my digital images of paintings -- I need to find out how to fix that without altering the overall color of the image to yellow. For now, trust me: the aspens are golden-yellow!

And, of course, don't forget to visit my Website once in a while: http://www.SouthwestSpaces.com or http://www.MarkJunge.com.

Bringing the Desert to the Central Coast

Two weeks from today, I'll be showing and (hopefully!) selling paintings at the Cattleman's Western Art Show and Sale in Paso Robles, CA, north of San Luis Obispo. Most of the works I'll make available will be of the desert. One piece will feature the San Juan mountains of Colorado (I'll post a photo next time), and another will show the sycamore trees of southern California. For directions to, and information about, the Show, please click here.

Meanwhile, the Joshua trees around here have been in bloom. I hope I can find time soon to get out into Joshua Tree National Park and see more of these natural wonders before the blooms fade into seed pods, since we don't get Joshua tree flowers every year.

This JT is on our property here in the hi desert. The flowers were still forming when I took the first picture. The second picture shows the flowers after they opened up. The flowers never really look like they're open, but trust me: they ARE!

So -- maybe I'll meet you in the Park soon, and I'll meet you in Paso Robles in two weeks!