A Walk in the (Cretaceous) Woods

Sometimes, ya jes' gotta paint DINOSAURS!!

A Walk in the Mist -- Deinonychus   10" x 8" / 25cm x 20cm

Here we have a group of Deinonychus ("die-NO-nee-kus"), a raptor species that was about 6'-7'/2m tall (and was what the "velociraptors" really were in the Jurassic Park movies). It's likely that, like modern-day lions, they finished gorging themselves on a kill and are now looking for a safe place to sleep it off -- safe from critters that might eat them!

Deinonychus lived in the late Cretaceous -- a hot, muggy, carbon dioxide-heavy time. Thus, I wanted the air to appear very foggy but still lit up by the blazing afternoon sun.

Although these dinos are long extinct, most of the plants I've depicted are still around -- "living relics" or "living fossils." The tall trees are Wollemia nobilis or Wollemi pine -- I believe they're limited today in the wild to SE Australia but can be found in landscaping for homes or businesses -- they're attractive trees! To the left is a cycad or sago palm, and further back are some taller Macaw palms, Acrocomia aculeata. And, of course, tree ferns and other species of low-growing ferns and mosses.

(Ya know -- finding resources to visualize dinosaurs isn't hard, but information about how extinct plants looked takes more effort!)

I'm not a dinosaur expert -- my area was microbiology -- but I do have a childlike fascination with these animals. They give me an opportunity to paint something a little different while applying what I've learned about Old Masters techniques and composition in art. I wanted to get away from the edge-to-edge sharpness that I see so often in paleoart and illustration; thus, the only spots in this painting that are detailed are the dinos and the treefern to their upper right. (Treeferns, by the way, are my favorite plants, especially the species that grow on Kauai'i (Cibotium chamissoi), even more than organ pipe cactus and Joshua trees.

I'm curious to see what kind of reaction I get from potential collectors. I have no idea what the market is for artwork like this -- I suspect it's limited -- but if works like these sell, I may have to work bigger in the future!

Rawr!!

The Wilds of California

Believe it or not, southern California still has some wild areas. Even in somewhat urban places!

California Wilds                    11" x 14"

One of my alma maters is California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, where I received my science degrees (Cal State L.A. is where I earned my BA in Art). Cal Poly is big on agricultural programs and has a lot of miniature farm- and ranch-like areas. But parts of the campus are natural, undeveloped land -- coastal sage scrub plant community typical of much of SoCal.

Many field biology classes (I was in some of those) take hikes out in this region to collect specimens, take measurements (i.e., what percentage of the ground is covered with plant materials), go on bird walks -- stuff like that.

So I had some opportunities to see some of this natural beauty -- things that many other students really don't even know about! And, of course, I've made a few paintings of it, with more to come.

In California Wilds, I made only a few slight changes to make the painting "work" better for me. The cluster of California sycamore trees on the left was actually another species of tree (black walnut). But I happen to like the sycamores (which do grow there), so in they went!

Also, the hiking trail is really a double track from vehicles that occasionally drive through here.

In all, I think I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish -- a dramatic, yet peaceful and contemplative, scene; a nice break from the concrete and brick of the buildings at Cal Poly.


See me at SouthwestSpaces.com!

Not-So-Boring (for Me) Statistics

I had to take a minute to look over the statistics that we bloggers get. Just to satisfy my curiosity. I'm a curious sort -- what can I say?

Not including this post: I've written 391 posts since I started this, with 11,784 views. Not bad -- I guess!

Many, many posts have only one or NO views, especially in the beginning years. It has picked up in the last couple of years, and six posts caught the attention of more than 100 readers each. They are, in descending order:

• 648 views   Desert Painting in the Dutch Tradition   11-29-2009
• 450    "         Jean-Léon Gérôme   8-28-2010
• 285    "         Desert Hills   1-23-2009
• 156    "         Kelly Clarkson and Fat-Ness   5-31-2009
• 149    "         Additional Website URL   1-22-2009
• 105    "         Desert Shack   11-05-2008

Don't know what it all means. I assume my piece on Gérôme got some hits because people were looking either for his artwork or for information about the man. Kelly Clarkson -- well, I wrote about how much I love a little plumpness in women -- many guys do, in fact, and don't care for the skinny, "concentration camp" look the entertainment industry constantly sells us.

I AM surprised that a post about a second URL (www.MarkJunge.com) I created, which will redirect the viewer to my "main" URL (www.SouthwestSpaces.com), got as much attention as it did!

My blog is useful to me in other ways, too -- it helps me look up events that happened and I can't remember the dates for. I.e., I never remember when I was officially diagnosed with Type II diabetes. But I wrote about it here in May 31, 2011. So it's been over four years ago.

Lately, my posts have been getting anywhere from a dozen to three dozen viewers. Nice to know friends out there have "discovered" me!

Thanks, everybody! We'll meet here again soon!


Postscript: how about an image of Kelly Clarkson in February, 2015 to finish this off?

Kelly Clarkson -- plus-size beauty!

Gathering Storm: Sonoran Pronghorn

Sonoran pronghorn are a desert-dwelling subspecies of the grasslands pronghorn we're more familiar with. At this time, they are found only in the southern-most regions of Arizona and south into Mexico. They are highly endangered, although their numbers are increasing thanks to cooperation between US and Mexican wildlife biologists and the captive breeding program in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.

Gathering Storm: Sonoran Pronghorn    11" x 14"    acrylic/panel

These critters are smaller, lighter-colored and skinnier than the ones you find on the prairie. They're quite shy and can see people approaching from over a mile away -- and the pronghorn disappear long before you would ever know they were there.

A storm is coming, and hopefully these guys are looking for some shelter -- not easy in the desert. The scene is in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument; in the distance loom the Sonoyta Mountains of Mexico.

I hope Sonoran pronghorn will return from the brink of extinction.

The painting is presently on my website. At this writing, all it needs is a coat of varnish, and it'll be ready to hang in someone's home or office!

www.southwestspaces.com/western_landscape_art.html

 

How to Pursue This Art Business

I'm still struggling with how to make a living, at least a part-time living, at art. I need to. Social Security isn't enough, and my IRA will be drained sometime early next year. The Wiffee is working toward launching a business, but again -- who knows how long, or if, it will take off.

Galleries are out of the question. It's all consignment, they take 40% - 50% (sometimes more), and it can be a hassle getting them to pay you when the work does sell. I even know of one gallery owner who decided to pull up stakes and take off -- with the remaining inventory of artwork that he never paid for. Thankfully, I wasn't in his gallery.

Outdoor art shows, and the travel associated with them, got too expensive and too iffy if nothing sold. Many of the western art shows keep inviting the same artists to show -- as long as they are selling and if they want to be in the shows, there's rarely any room for unknowns like me. And when you come right down to it, I don't really like traveling anymore. I'm a totally cocooned artist!

Showing at banks, restaurants, whatever -- I just haven't heard enough success stories (in fact, I've heard none!) to chase that idea.

That leaves the Internet. I'm hoping I can depend on website sales and maybe from other sites, if I can find some good ones. (EBay and etsy.com seem to have gone downhill for art sales).

That's why I'm painting smaller these days -- the art will be more affordable, and it'll be easier to ship, especially if I continue with my policy of selling the works unframed.

And I'm hoping I can reach parts of the country where people still appreciate traditional/classical painting styles. Most collectors in southern California sure don't!

So -- I guess I'll need to pour my marketing efforts into Internet sales -- period. Frankly, I don't know what else to do. (By the way, my website URL is SouthwestSpaces.com or MarkJunge.com).

Wish me luck!

Continuing the Continuation (Some More)

I'm in the habit of scouring Google Images looking for artwork .. sometimes paintings made in the past, and occasionally art being made today.

In fact, I stumble across works from the 19th century onward that are stunning in their beauty. I wish I could reproduce some of the modern-day masterpieces, but I don't want to violate anyone's copyright and get myself in a legal bind. Check out the piece entitled "Buttermere," the first painting that appears on this page. I LOVE this painting!! And it's quite inspiring to me and shows a direction I want to work toward.

Suffice to say, I've seen landscape paintings with breathtaking lighting and shadow effects that seem to give the land a spiritual sense and make it come alive. That's what I want in my own landscapes. Little by little, I'm getting there.

Funny -- sometimes I mean to create works with those qualities, and somehow it doesn't always happen. I keep returning to what I've done before ... the tried and true ... the comfortable and familiar. But I have slowly been breaking out of that mold, and I think I'm finally ready to portray the sheer drama of nature and what she has to show us ... and dish out to us, sometimes!

"Pretty" landscapes are still fun and, well, they're pretty. But drama can be pretty, too, and sometimes dramatic scenes can move us in ways mere prettiness can't.

Continuing the continuation. Here I come!

The Caretakers of Our Souls

The Caretakers of Our Souls      11" x 14"      acrylic on panel

I always like to think of churches as being the caretakers of our souls while we are here in this life. (I don't always agree with some of the other stuff that goes on, but in my ideal world, that's what churches do).

This is my latest classically-inspired painting. It's a scene of one of the old California missions: Mission San Antonio de Padua, north of Paso Robles in the little town/area of Jolon. Thankfully, it today sits in a rustic setting but is still an active parish. A man is strolling down the path, looking around, contemplating the world that is unseen and bigger than this one.

In my mind, this guy is me -- always looking for answers, lost in thought, trying to get past the clichés and simple-minded, feel-good platitudes that have overcome modern Christianity. He -- I -- are into the deeper things of existence, trying to reach into the infinite much as I did when I used to do transcendental mediation years ago. God is so, SO much more than the grandfatherly figure we laugh and talk with over coffee.

I made only a few changes to the actual scene -- the dirt footpath is really a paved road, covered in faded asphalt. I brought the trees on the right a bit forward from where they are in life.

The title came from an old Robert Stack movie, The Caretakers. He was the director of a mental hospital, and in talking with his staff, Robert described all of them as "the caretakers of their souls," the ones who were there for the patients, helping them as best they could to play the cards the patients have been dealt. That's an awesome role, all considered.

The churches, then, are/should be the caretakers of OUR souls. another awesome role to fill.


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End of Another Day

End of Another Day is my latest painting It features a view in Joshua Tree National Park in late afternoon. It's spring, but I de-emphasized the flowers and focused more on shapes and lighting.

End of Another Day                                 11" x 14"

This is the first piece I've done in a long time that doesn't include any wildlife -- not even a hawk in the sky. In my mind, there's a fine line between solitude and loneliness -- this time, I was leaning more toward the latter. Lots of space, everything is spread out, long shadows and only rock and plants -- no animals. I think a critter would have added something that people can relate to, and maybe then the viewer wouldn't feel quite so alone out there. (Of course, the critters are actually all around you, watching -- but you don't see them!)

I don't know if I succeeded -- if I didn't, well, not a huge issue. But if you look at this and sense that you may be the only form of animal life on the planet...then I pulled it off!

Enjoy.

The San Dimas Festival of Arts

I visited an art show this weekend -- one that I've participated in once in a while. It used to be the San Dimas Festival of Western Arts San Dimas, CA, but they decided to broaden the scope of the artwork they present, with the only twist: it has to have a California connection. Something about what's here today or in history, whether landscapes, buildings, people, activities et al.

It's always fun to visit this show. While I always see works that don't fit into the classical genre that I love, there is some nice work here. It was also an opportunity to visit friends I never see unless I visit this show, and I squeezed in a little networking, too.

I hope the show went well for everyone. As with many shows and artists in the continuing recession that just won't go away, the Festival's sales have been down. Such a shame -- it's a nice show that deserves to be around for a long time.

More Microbial Surrealism

I'm slowly but surely adding to my portfolio of surrealism paintings based on things I've seen under various types of microscopes. (Being a microbiologist has its benefits!)

A Quarter Past Tomorrow        20" x 24" / 51cm x 61cm

 A Quarter Past Tomorrow shows the sporulating structures and threadlike hyphae ("hy-phee") of one of the common green bread molds -- Aspergillus glaucus. My intent was not to make a scientific illustration, but to produce a work of fine art in the tradition of French surrealist Yves Tanguy.

Also, surrounding the mold are small golden-yellow spheres. These are the bacteria species, Staphylococcus aureus, the cause of the MRSA infections that becoming increasingly common. I considered making the Staph much bigger, but in the end, I decided to keep things approximately to scale -- and bacteria are much smaller than fungal growth.

The green balls that form the sprays on the ends of the vertical growths are reproductive spores. If you've ever watched mold growing, you'd see it starts out as a white, cottony mass, then it turns fuzzy and green. The spores are what gives mold its color.

Aspergillus species are normally benign unless your immune system is down and you inhale lots of spores (which are all around us). Then it can cause a pretty nasty infection in the lungs and even disseminate to other parts of the body.

That concludes today's microbiology lecture. Enjoy the painting. More to come, possibly with greater liberties taken when I present these mysteriously beautiful organisms.

Finally, I'll be creating a website soon just for the surreal works (with links back and forth to my western landscapes site). The new site isn't created yet, but the URL is www.SurrealMark.com. I'll let you know when it's up and if I'll be offering these paintings online, or if the site will be strictly a portfolio with information on where to acquire the art.


 

Dreams and Surrealism

I was always fascinated by the following painting by Salvador Dali:

Suburbs of a Paranoiac Critical Town Afternoon on the Outskirts of European History, Salvador Dali, 1936

Lots of fun stuff going on in this image!

But with all the neat things happening here, the image of the gal with a bunch of grapes fascinates me the most:

Funny -- she looks like people I see in my dreams. Not that she necessarily resembles them or that the dream peeps are offering grapes. But she has an other-worldly look, like she's talking to the viewer, except that we can't hear her. And why is she standing there, holding out a bunch of grapes? I suppose only Dali would know, and I don't know if he ever said; if he didn't, it's too late now.

I'm kinda thinking...I'd like to make some paintings that look like I've illustrated things out of my dreams. They almost always have people in them, although the faces are often obscured. Lots of space, lots of people, just going about their business.

Except in a dream that recurs every so often. I'll go outside, not realizing I'm wearing only my underpants (so far, I've never gone out naked), and nobody notices. Until I notice it, then everybody else notices it, too, and they turn and stare at me -- and by then, I've moved away from my door and can't just run back inside. And I'm all embarrassed...

I'm not into dream interpretation, so I don't know if it means anything or not. But I do get a kick out of the images the subconscious manufactures. They're almost, but not quite, realistic. But the UNreal parts are what I enjoy!

Sometimes, too, my dreams disturb me after I wake up. Nothing nightmarish about them, but I feel unsettled.

Don't know what it all means. But good surrealism reminds me of dream imagery (Dali seemed to be the best at it), and that's what I love the most about this genre!

Lights in the Darkness: Fluorescent Paints

Every so often, I get these ideas for things I could try that might broaden my appeal as an artist to more collectors. The latest thought: blacklight paintings.

Photo by http://www.visualbliss.co.uk/UVPaint.htm (Colorful, huh?)

I've actually messed around with blacklight paintings years ago, in the early 1970s, I'd say. In fact, my first "real" painting was an apocalyptic vision with a setting sun. The painting was done in traditional acrylic paints, but the sun was finished in fluorescent red -- I wanted the sun to "pop." (I think I still have this painting, stashed away in a box in the garage).

Then I did a series of paintings in which I mixed fluorescent blue with normal white paint. I used this for sky color -- in normal room lighting, the sky was light blue, but under a UV lamp, the sky glowed a dark blue, muted by the non-fluorescent white that was added to the ultraviolet-sensitive blue. Thus, the paintings were "2-in-1" -- daytime scenes under room lights, nighttime scenes by blacklight.

I was never interested in the psychedelic LSD look of blacklight posters of the late 60s/early 70s. I believe some serious art could be made with fluorescent paints. Except for one problem:

Fluorescent paint isn't archival. UV radiation breaks the chemical bonds that form the fluorescent minerals, resulting in products that don't light up under blacklight. I'm not sure the paints last very long even when exposed to daylight coming in through windows or artificial lights at night. I'd hate to invest a lot of time and effort into works that could fade or change color within just a few years.

So -- if I proceed with the bunch of fluorescent paints I ordered, I'll have to make sure the paintings I make are fast and easy to do and placed in inexpensive frames, so I won't need to ask a lot of money for the pieces. The artwork would be original "posters" that may not be around in 25 years (probably much less).

We'll see what I come up with!

Courthouse Wash -- for Now!

Courthouse Wash is the title of my latest painting. That is -- it's the title for now. I was hoping to name paintings with more romanticized, poetic titles rather than descriptive ones. So -- title is subject to change without notice!

The size is 18" x 24" / 46cm x 61cm) and features a view in Arches National Park, UT in the late afternoon. Beautiful spot.

I'm not quite ready to sell this yet, at least not until I decide if I want to have prints made. It does appear on my website (which, of course, is either http://www.SouthwestSpaces.com or http://www.MarkJunge.com). Be sure and check it once in a while if you're interested in acquiring this piece.

Drawing (but NOT Quartering) Body Parts!

As you may or may not know, I offer a number of prints on Fine Art America. A few of them are of paintings I've done, but most are some of my many MANY photographs that I've played with a bit to make them look more like paintings.

And I'll have to admit -- I'm underwhelmed by the sales so far.

So...what to do, what to do?

Well, I'd like to be able to offer more prints of paintings, but frankly, I can't afford to pay for high-resolution digital images to be made of my artwork. And I don't have a large-format flatbed scanner.

My latest brainchild is to make some drawings of people, or at least parts of people, that I can scan on the equipment I do have. The drawings could be either in black-and-white, colored pencil, or -- more likely if I want color -- scanned as line drawings and then add color on the computer, so they'd be hybrid drawings + digital art.

These two drawings are details showing the joined hands of two young woman dancing. It's a subject that's near and dear to my heart since I've had a fetish for clasped hands and interlocked fingers (especially girls'/women's hands) for as far back as I can remember -- there's something terribly intimate and sexy about it. (I always loved the fact that in the many dance classes I've taken, many female students seemed to like holding MY hand(s) that way!)

I don't know if there's a market for this sort of thing or not. I've seen many art pieces in which the torso, heads and faces were executed in an artistic way. I'm thinking of other body parts besides hands, and...I dunno...maybe!

In addition, I understand there's a way to make the Fine Art America prints appear on my website. I'd like to figure out how to do that. It's hard to say if it would help, but I doubt it would hurt!

Once again -- stay tuned. Oh, and by the way -- my website URLs are SouthwestSpaces.com and MarkJunge.com.

Thoughts on Some Gallery Artists' Receptions

Last night I attended three art gallery receptions in Palm Springs, CA. One of those was for an artist I actually know; the other two I stumbled upon but decided to check 'em out.

The artist is Carrie Graber (www.CarrieGraber.com). She paints architectural details and interiors, often with a female in the scene who looks an awful lot like her. ☺

This is one of Carrie's paintings. It's realistic, yet she somehow achieved a look that would allow the piece to fit into contemporary homes or offices (unlike MY paintings, which are modeled after 19th century -- or older -- artwork). Most of her paintings seem very light and airy, even this nighttime scene. Her work is detailed but uncluttered which I believe is partly what gives her paintings that open look. They're quite pleasing to look at and would fit anywhere.

I noticed Carrie framed her paintings in a simple, natural-wood (pine? maple? ??) tone -- not a wide molding at all. I also noticed artwork in the other galleries I visited were framed the same way. And ANOTHER artist I know and like, Mary-Austin Klein (www.maryaustinklein.com), uses similar frames for HER pieces!

Clouds Over East Mojave             Mary-Austin Klein

(I love the zen-like feeling of Mary-Austin's art -- realistic, almost photographic; yet, uncluttered, lots of open space as with Carrie's work).

You can see the kind of molding I'm talking about here on Mary-Austin's paintings:

Again -- very simple, minimal blonde-colored wood molding. The grain is visible when you see it up-close.

All this made me think (OMG -- he's thinking!): is this a trend in framing contemporary art? Is this something I need to consider doing? And -- do I need to think about simplifying my painting and go for "zen realism"?

Don't know, don't know. I still love the works of the 19th century American Hudson River School painters and the drama they often portrayed. But I like Carrie's and Mary-Austin's look, too. And I'll bet they sell better in today's art-buying taste!

Some things I have to think about. (I should attend more gallery openings, too!)

Matins

I'm not sure if my latest painting is at a crossroads as far as what I'll be painting in the days ahead...

It's not exactly a desert landscape, and there's a human in the view! Still -- I like the results, but I'd have to do some serious thinking about how to include humans in the vast "wastelands" of the desert landscape.

In addition, conceiving of this image, and executing it, took longer than usual. I may have to increase the price to compensate!

Anyway, this is Baldwin Lake at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, Arcadia, CA. If you were a fan of "Fantasy Island," you've seen this lake as the "lagoon" that "Da plane! Da plane" supposedly landed in -- although, as you can see, it's much too small to land a plane here. (The Queen Anne House, the white-with-red-gingerbread trim structure Mr. Rourke used as his headquarters, is off to the right out of the field of view).

The painting is a combination of reality and fantasy. The Arboretum isn't open when the sun rises, so I've never seen the place with the backlighting I've depicted. Peacocks do roam the grounds, but they tend to remain near the entrance -- a good brisk walk off to the left. And I've never seen a young lady in a gauzy white dress standing there like this.

In addition, the lake's appearance goes back to 1997. Most of the papyrus plants (the green "pom-poms") seem to have died off. Also the curved palm tree on the right actually curves away from the lake, not toward it, and it's tall enough so the fronds should not even appear in the painting.

In any case, this is an idea I've had in my head for many, many years -- something tropical with exotic birds and an attractive young female (well, I assume she's attractive!) with my favorite color harmony -- yellow-green-blue. And the aquatic papyrus looks so tropical (African, in fact -- they grow along the Nile River from Egypt to Uganda and Tanzania).

I'll probably put the painting up for sale eventually. First, I'd like to see how prints of the image do.

Galleries...What to Do, What to Do?

I took a little trip to Palm Desert yesterday to run some errands...do some stuff I can't do here in the hi desert. One of those errands was to traverse El Paseo (a mile-long shopping district that's supposedly the equivalent of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills) and see what's the latest with the art galleries there.

El Paseo, Palm Desert, CA   (Image by City of Palm Desert)

Well, let's see...some of the galleries I knew were gone -- out of business, I assume. A few other galleries moved around...not sure, but I think they downsized to lower square-footage spaces. Some of the places I remember are still there, and there were a few newer galleries, too, giving it a go.

What I also noticed was the continuing shift toward contemporary art. I didn't see much classical representation artwork, which -- of course -- that's the kind I do. With two exceptions, I didn't see any galleries on El Paseo where I thought I would fit.

Another thing -- seems like these days, I get feelings of discomfort just from being in galleries. I was handing out business cards and promotional postcards to a few of the galleries, but y'know -- I've had enough bad experiences with galleries (including one on El Paseo -- he's still there, by the way) that I'm still not sure I even want to go with them.

The balance of power definitely favors them. Galleries are so used to doing things a certain way (and it's worked for them) that artists like me really have no leverage. Consignment only. Contact them a certain way, even at a certain time of the year. Exclusivity rights -- artists can't show anywhere else within a defined region. No real contracts spelling out everyone's rights. And essentially being at their mercy.

Their cut is anywhere from 40% to 60% of the retail price of the art. Lots of hoops to jump through, and then they may take more than the artist can afford; at least, until the artists become "hot stuff," which tends to be unlikely.

So-o-o...I guess I'll have to continue to find other ways of selling art. Don't know what yet -- I feel like I've tried everything -- but I may have to try those same things somewhere else.

I'll keep painting and then storing the paintings until the right opportunities come along. I have to minimize these art-biz gambling losses -- I've lost too much already.

And, of course, I'll keep hoping that the economy will improve so people will return to buying "luxury" goods like art.

Painting in 2015

Alright...Now that we're three days into 2015, I guess I need to start thinking about what I'm gonna paint this year.

I wish I didn't have to be concerned with making money at art. But I need to. My Social Security doesn't bring in enough, and we don't have enough $$$ in our IRA accounts to last very long -- a few years at the most.

And the fact is -- while traditional/classical landscapes DO sell, My research shows they don't sell really well. Nowadays, art in general isn't selling, let alone for a relatively unknown artist-dude like me.

Not being negative here -- I'm facing the facts and being real. Sometimes in business, one must re-evaluate what it takes to make it all work.

This is a painting by Czechoslovakian artist Alphonse Maria Mucha. The style (Art Nouveau) is a little too dated for me, but it's colorful, playful, I (think I) could do similar work, and maybe it would sell better than what I do now. And I believe I could be happy doing it, so it's not like I'd be "selling out" or "not following my passion."

Fruit, Alphonse Maria Mucha, 1897

Another possibility might be a much more dramatic, but realistic, version of landscapes, similar to what one might see as a background in a sci-fi video game or movie. I can't show examples of what I have in mind do to copyright violation issues, but if I ever make some images in this genre, you're see them here.

Finally, I need to find a way to produce scenes that are less expensive -- the simpler style of Mucha would help with that -- less time spent on painting details -- and I may need to give up on the labor-intensive use of transparent glazes, which is a bit like doing the same painting over and over and over again because I paint in multiple layers when I use glazes. I love the stained-glass look of glazes, but I have to ask more $$$ for my paintings because they take much longer to do.

Prints would be another option -- I just need to find a way to make high-resolution, but inexpensive, digital files of the paintings, something I don't have the means to do now.

Well, in any case, 2015 is gonna hafta be the year I sell art -- more of it for less with a different look -- either a little or a lot different. meanwhile, I'll continue to paint the traditional work as a hobby -- works I'll be proud to hang on my own walls!

Thoughts About Art in 2015

The following is part of a news e-mail that I receive from the editor of a major art magazine:


"Would it surprise you that I know many artists who have become wealthy -- some incredibly wealthy -- from their art? You probably know who some of them are, but there are many more you haven't heard of who are making a killer living off their art."


This was the kind of thing that always energized me in terms of pursuing a career in art. I never even expected to become wealthy at making and selling art -- a comfortable living would be just fine.

The thing of it is -- I do know artists who do quite well, financially and emotionally. Some of them are excellent artists and others -- well, let's just say I don't connect as well with what they do.

For some reason, it hasn't turned out as well for me. Some of the problem, possibly, is that in southern California, buyers seem obsessed with impressionism and the plein air look. These people really seem to believe that this style is superior to the more photographic/classical realist look that I prefer. The blurry impressionist works "leave more for the imagination to fill in and is therefore 'better' than traditional realism." In fact, I read/hear this notion so much, it seems like it's a line that has been passed around, taught somewhere, gone viral and taken on a life of its own.

I suspect abstract expressionists feel their art is at the very top of intellectual involvement, then -- what could leave more to the imagination than artworks that don't have a subject at all?

Maybe it's a marketing thing -- the editor who wrote the above quote is selling a set of DVDs that is intended to help artists do better with the $$$. However, I know for a fact that what he said above is true -- there are artists (most are not household names like Thomas Kinkade) who sell -- even in this economy -- works that sell for much more than I ask for my pieces.

So -- where do I go from here? Well, for now I look upon my website (SouthwestSpaces.com) as more of an online portfolio than a real selling tool, although I have provided a means to sell from my site. I probably could do more with it, such as frame the paintings so they're ready to hang as soon as they arrive at the buyers' homes (as one friend suggested I do). It means shipping would be more involved, but not impossible.

Then there are galleries. I haven't had great luck with them. I think it helps if the artists already have an impressive following of buyers, but I don't have that. I find that gallery owners like my work, but they have difficulty selling it, at least in SoCal.

Outdoor art shows? Too much of a gamble. They're expensive to do and involve a lot of physical exertion. At too many of them, I had just enough sales to cover expenses (which is not the point of doing shows), or no sales at all.

In the end, not much will probably change next year. I'm painting landscapes that are not deserts in the hopes of attracting a more diverse crowd, and I'll continue to doodle along at a relaxed pace (I'm getting too tired to push like I used to). And I'll paint more holiday scenes for the book I want to put together together (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas -- maybe Hanukkah -- images). Like this:

I can't afford the guy's DVDs (even with his moneyback guarantee), so I'll have to continue on my own.

Have a great 2015!

Decorating with Art: One More Time!

As you may have noticed, I really love the old-style, classical realism kind of art, whether 2D (paintings) or 3D (sculptures).

So when we used to watch TV (which we don't do so much anymore), it was often a bit distressing to see modern art/abstract expressionism work in shows where up-to-dateness and high style was the look intended for the backgrounds and actors. Realism was for lower-class characters or stuffy old rich folk who could afford to collect the Old Masters.

Most frustrating of all are the D-I-Y interior decorating programs such as those on Home & Garden TV (HGTV), where artwork is the last thing one does, one can make it him/herself, and its sole function is to "tie the room together." In short, anything that can be created quickly and that uses the same colors as those elsewhere in the room is fine. Eliciting emotional responses are not necessary.

Offhand, I don't know if the "artwork" to the left was made on a TV program, but it is fairly typical of an HGTV-generated piece. No doubt all of the colors that appeared in the furniture, throw pillows, carpeting et al are in this painting; in fact, many of the hues also show in the figurine of the macaw on the mantle, as well as in the glassware to the right of the macaw. It ties the room together. How color-coordinated.

Any guesses as to how long it took to paint this masterpiece?

And sadly, this kind of stuff has so infused the American consciousness that it's all accepted without question or comment. Excellence is no longer a criteria for what we look at every day on our walls.

On the right is a different approach for adding culture to a room. This is a shower curtain that has been turned into a wall hanging. I assume it wasn't expensive, and if you like octopuses (ocotopi?), then this is just the thing for you.

I've also seen TV designers heading over to fabric stores and buying material with either a pattern or pictures, stretched on art canvas stretcher bars, and hung.




Now -- maybe this is all intended to be temporary. When the decorating budget recovers, maybe the home owners will pick up some real art -- as long as it's in the appropriate colors. One can hope.

Many years ago, I took a college course in interior decorating. The instructor told us it's best to choose the carpeting and furniture colors first, since colors are more limited in these items. Then choose the paint color to go with the furnishings.

I'd go a step further: choose the artwork first -- the works that move you and that speak to you in a way like nothing else can. Then get the furniture, and then get the wall paint.

Do it this way, and you'll have a beautifully-designed room that you'll want to come home to and that makes your life better because of the art that touches your soul in special ways.

The Biology of ... Mermaids???

My best paintings tend to be of subjects I know very well -- deserts, especially.

So doing an underwater scene, in the Mediterranean Sea, mermaids, sunken classical ruins -- these are new things to me, as least as far as painting them myself is concerned.

The City of Mermaids shows the sunken city of Atlantis, which I always imagined was somewhere (if it existed at all) in the Mediterranean Sea, perhaps near Greece or Italy. Legend has it that the place was an island that sunk into the sea due to an earthquake, volcanic eruption or both.

Thus, I did a lot of research so the fish and invertebrates that I depicted would be those one would find in the Mediterranean, including the sea grass (Posidonia oceanica) which seems to be the dominant plant there. (Thank God for the Internet and Google Images!)

Mermaids are another story. I went with the legends of the half-human female - half fish. Mermaids (and fairies) are beings I kind of wish existed. While I'm not obsessed with either as art subjects, they're fun and an escape from what I usually do.

Being both an artist and a biologist, I had to think of what a mermaid would be like from an anatomical standpoint. Unlike women who perform as mermaids by wearing a pull-on fluke (or tail), mermaids would not propel themselves like humans moving their legs inside of the fluke. Mermaid backbones would extend all the way to their caudal (tail) fins, and thus would feature that neat up-and-down motion of dolphins and whales. Humans' knees don't allow for this and only bend in one direction.

Likewise, I don't believe mermaids could sit on their "knees" as humans do -- their tails wouldn't be flexible enough for that, not could they wrap their tails around themselves as I've seen depicted in 19th century paintings of the critters.

Oh, yes -- my mermaids don't wear clothing to cover up anything. I can't imagine marine creatures needing to do that -- modesty is a human failing, after all!

Finally, my mermaids are not exactly skinny. Besides the fact that a little weight on women is attractive to me, the warmblooded mammalian half of mermaids would require fat (aka "blubber" in seals and whales) to insulate them from the cold ocean depths.

In the legends, mermaids seemed to like human males, and they somehow managed to enjoy each others' company. I didn't touch on those themes here, and I didn't get into mermen or merkids -- that might appear in a future project. Supposedly, mermaids were known for being fickle; for that reason, I would avoid trying to have a relationship with them. ☺

Meanwhile, The City of Mermaids is one of the hardest pieces I've ever made, and I'm not entirely sure it's of the quality I want to see in my terrestrial scenes. But it's hard to say, really. I've never seen a view like this! Feel free to comment and let me know if you think this image works!