Monday, June 6, 2022

Desert Sunset -- on a Bunny??

"Desert Sunset on a Bunny." ON A BUNNY????

Well, yeah...if you've been following this blog for a while, you know I'm addicted to cute little bunnies, whether domesticated or wild. They (along with guinea piggies) have gotta be the cutest critters in God's creation!

So I often place desert cottontail bunny-rabbits in my desert scenes, watching the viewer before the viewer notices the bunny! I hope this new piece continues the tradition.


Desert Sunset on a Bunny            11" x 14" / 28cm x 35.6cm

This scene is in Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

The Desert and a Desert Bird

Years ago, I was in Joshua Tree National Park on a cloudy day, and I was lucky (or blessed) enough to be in a spot where the clouds opened up just a little and shone a spotlight on a Joshua tree in front of a monzogranite formation. It didn't last long, but I was able to get a few pictures of it on black-and-white film before the spotlight disappeared.

Sadly, I don't know where that roll of film is today, although I know I still have it SOMEwhere! But between my memories and more recent photos I took to provide the details, I was able to reconstruct the scene as I saw it (except the sky was a more solid gray, not as dramatic-looking as I painted it. Size is 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

The Sun and the Rain

I also finished a piece showing a handsome desert bird -- a Phainopepla (pronounced fane-oh-PEP-la). They look sort of like black cardinals, but they aren't cardinals at all.

On the left are the birds' favorite goodies -- desert mistletoe berries. Like the Christmastime mistletoe, the desert variety is somewhat parasitic, and birds that eat the berries (like our friends, the Phainopeplas) drop the seeds, typically after it passes through their digestive tracts, and the seeds are deposited on some unsuspecting, innocent plant to grow and begin the cycle anew.

But the birds have those neat crests on their heads, black feathers (females are gray) and red eyes. They're quite striking and are about 8" / 20cm long. The size of this painting is, like the above piece, 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

Phainopepla

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com and www.SouthwestSpaces.com

Friday, May 6, 2022

Three New Desert Paintings!

Visiting Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona last month definitely energized my desire to paint the desert -- I've completed three small paintings since we returned on 04 April!! All are 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm.

A Desert Stroll

Eagle's Nest

Arizona Desert

Can you tell? I LOVE the desert!! I think I needed to see saguaro and organ pipe cacti in their natural settings. (Eagle's Nest is a scene in local Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA). I love Joshua trees and our Mojave desert, too, but I think I needed to be immersed in the Sonoran desert of Arizona for more inspiration.

I'd say it worked!

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Monday, April 18, 2022

Allosaurus and the Queen of Blood!

April has been sort of an interesting month, art-wise. We took a trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona (I needed to see cactus!) and a quick daytrip to nearby Joshua Tree National Park. We had hoped to see lots of flowers, but there weren't very many.

I finished a painting for a friend who wanted an image of herself as the Queen of Blood, a top-tier vampire in a spooky scene. I also made a quick drawing of an allosaurus, a Jurassic-period carnivorous dinosaur. I identify with being a dino, while the friend sees herself as the Queen of Blood!!

I think the Queen of Blood isn't too scary, but if you're sensitive to ghoulish/Halloweenish scenes, you may not want to look beyond the Allosaurus drawing.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Allosaurus


The Queen of Blood


Friday, March 18, 2022

Cactus and Clouds

Life has a way of putting us (me) behind schedule. I dealt with Covid in January and seemingly got past it. Then last month I had a bout of vertigo -- that dizzy feeling where the world seems to be spinning around you even if one is sitting or lying down! Thankfully that's over with now. Vertigo can be an after-effect of Covid -- I've had brief episodes of vertigo before, but this time it lasted a week. NOT FUN!!!

At least I did manage to squeeze in a new painting of the Arizona desert -- it's entitled Cactus and Clouds, measures 11" x 14" / 27.9cm x 35.6cm, and depicts an area southwest of Wickenburg, AZ:

Otherwise, I'm now working on a painting requested by a friend -- sort of Halloween-ish, but it's not of Halloween. I may post it here, but I may not, in which case I'll write about something else.

I'm still feeling fatigued a lot and often don't feel like doing much, but I try to find a balance -- paint while I still can, but be lazy when I want to be lazy! After being a workaholic for so long, I've learned to love laziness!!

Spring is almost here. Enjoy the turn of the season, pray for Ukraine, and thank you for your support.

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com


Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Totem and Turkey Vulture

Totem and Turkey Vulture is the tentative title of my latest painting.


"Totem" is the name of the tall skinny rock formation, Totem Pole (the formations to the left of it are the Yei Bi Chei rocks) in Monument Valley/Navajo Tribal Park, AZ, USA. The vulture should be obvious! 😊) As usual, I wanted to emphasize the vast distances one sees in this incredible land! (And, of course, I'm hoping it blows the viewer away!!) The size is 12" x 36" / 30.5cm x 91.4cm.

Ahhhh...I love ðŸ’– the desert!!


Mark Junge

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Starting the New Year

 Wow -- another year has slipped by us and is well underway!! Happy 2022!!

MY happy part of the new year will be delayed for a while -- The Wiffee and I both came down with Covid just before New Year's Day. Nothing all that serious (so far), mostly just fevers, coughing and being tired. But unless something goes really wrong, I expect by February we'll be our usual sassy selves.

Painting has pretty much ground to a halt for now, but at least I can share my last artwork from 2021. I hope you'll like it.

Meanwhile, thank you for your support!

A Light in the Forest                           10" x 08" / 25cm x 20cm

Mark Junge

www.MarkJunge.com or www.SouthwestSpaces.com