Ain't It Cute?

Even lizard babies are cute!

This one has been hanging out around our front door and runs away from the house whenever we step outside. S/he (don't know the sex or the species at this time) is only about 3.5"/8.9cm nose-to-tip-of-tail. The head is disproportionally large, but I'm sure the body will grow bigger and will catch up in time.

As you may have caught on before -- I really like lizards!

The Money Circle

Back in the mid-1970's, I worked for a camera company as a shipping/receiving clerk. Like most companies, this place had its good and bad points. So after a while, I was ready to move on.

But to what? I had no other tangible job skills, I hadn't finished college (where I was majoring in art), and any personnel manager I talked with felt I needed to have more goals in my life (not to mention more employable skills). Plus, I wasn't necessarily good at marketing myself.

All this lit a fire within me that lasted for years. I made arrangements to return to college (leaving my job with the camera company), get a degree in whatever sounded practical that would also interest me, and simply have more options when I re-entered the work force on a career level.

I started in ornamental horticulture but quickly changed to microbiology, medical technology option. This curriculum would have prepared me as much as possible to enter an internship to train as a medical technologist, the folks in clinical labs who run the tests on patient specimens, and then take various state board exams to receive a license.

I got as far as being admitted to the one-year training program at the City of Hope in Duarte, CA. That's when plans changed. It was either because of the overwhelming stress of trying to learn and do so much in so little time, or the fact that I needed dental work done and was taking prescription pain killers as a result.

The point is: I took a multiple-choice written exam and made some really dumb errors, thus failing the test. They allowed me to re-take it, and I tried to be as careful as possible, even to the point of working out math problems in the margins -- but then circling the wrong letter on the test. More dumb stuff -- and I was dismissed from the internship.

Whichever the cause, that was the first time I ever truly bombed out on anything important in my life -- an event I never entirely recovered from. I entered grad school and received a masters degree in microbiology. But the funny thing about science: a masters is not a help but a hindrance. I was overqualified to do what bachelors degrees people do, but not advanced enough to do Ph.D. work. In most fields, a masters degree is considered worthwhile. In the natural sciences, it puts you at a disadvantage.

None of the jobs I found in reserach were actually microbiology-related, although I had skills that worked in other fields (i.e., electron microscopy). Most of those jobs were also grant-funded, which means you can be laid-off if the grant isn't renewed. Which I often was.

So in 1991 I left science altogether, we moved to Colorado Springs and I took a position in a Christian ministry answering letters and sending out resources that I felt could help our constituents deal with their issues. As mentioned in a previous post, I have writing skills, so in some ways, this job was a good fit. Sort of a mix of customer service and light-weight counselor, mostly with teen girls.

The down side: I'm not as conservative as many of the people who were around me. Of the nine years I worked there, I spent at least seven of them trying to get out. The stress and pressure to conform to certain religious expectations and behavior was quite damaging, and to this day I have a difficult time relating to church or Christians.

After deaths in each of our families, we returned to California in late 2000 with the idea that my wife would find a local job and I would paint (and sell) full time. It seemed to be working at first, but wouldn't you know it: the economy started slowing down, and so did the art sales.

And here we are today, where I feel like I've gone a terribly frustrating full circle: no real employable skills (assuming I could even find a job around here); I've been out of the lab for 18 years and am not only rusty, I'm behind the times. And I'm still not sure I know how to sell myself, anyway.

For most artists I know (maybe all -- some of them may be lying!), sales are down or nonexistant. Some artists are speculating art business methodologies that worked in the past may not work anymore -- that buyers' attitudes have changed. Don't know about that -- history shows alternating cycles of parsimony and wanton materialism.

It all certainly puts me in a position where I have to decide what to do next -- and fast. I know it isn't just me -- but that doesn't affect the fullness of my pocketbook. I've been painting smaller lately: rather than lowering prices (which wouldn't be fair to my previous customers), I'm making paintings that I can offer for less.

BUT: do I need to make more changes? Are there enough people out there who want the things that I paint? More decorative? More colorful? More abstract/impressionistic/whatever?

The Money Circle has been a long-lasting, maddening, frustrating and sad situation. I hope I find out what I need to do soon -- before it's too late.

More ACEOs

One nice thing about Art Cards Editions and Originals (ACEOs -- see 17 June 2009's post) -- it doesn't take long to do them. And I'm finding, based on hit counters, more people on eBay seem to be looking for ACEOs than for 8" x 10" / 20cm x 25cm paintings. If it turns out ACEOs are the only items that I sell on eBay, that's fine. It just means I'll have to do about 500-600 pieces a month to pay our bills! But, believe it or not, that's do-able!

I listed the above ACEOs on eBay just tonight. The image on the left is a scene from Joshua Tree National Park, CA (go to eBay); the other painting (go to eBay) shows the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles, also in CA.

Lizard of Ahhhs...

Handsome little critter, huh? (Or pretty little critter -- I don't know if this is a male or a female).

This desert spiny lizard showed up in a corner of our patio yesterday. So of course, I just had to take some pictures of him/her.

Need I say s/he will be showing up in a painting in the near future?

Jealous

Yes, I admit -- I do get jealous at times. Hopefully not in a negative, destructive way, but it does happen.

This morning on ABC-TV's Good Morning America, they showed an interview with J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books (and which have been made into highly successful movies).

As I understand, she had relatively little writing experience. Yet, after a divorce and no significant employment skills to offer, she turned to writing -- and almost overnight she achieved the kind of notoriety and financial means most of us only dream of.

And then there was the (deceased) Michael Crighton. He received an MD degree and did some postdoctoral work, but as far as I know, he never suffered through a medical residency or practiced medicine.

Now, I do possess some writing skills, although I've never attempted anything as involved as a novel. But I do harbor a dream of doing that. So it is that I'm jealous of both Rowling and Crighton.

I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books, but I really should. I know other writers who have, and they claim the writing is very good.

I've only read one of Crighton's books (Jurassic Park: The Lost World). The storyline was fine, but honestly, I believe I'm a better writer than he was. What I seem to lack -- a gift he had -- is knowing how to take a principle of science and turn it into a story. After all, I have a MS degree in microbiology: I could have written The Andromeda Strain. I understand DNA cloning: I could have written Jurassic Park. But I didn't. Stories like those just didn't occur to me at all.

So I have an additional goal in life, over and above making and selling art: to develop my imagination and story-telling abilities so I can be the next Michael Crighton -- or even the next J.K. Rowling.

But until then -- I'll wallow in jealousy!

Monument Valley

I actually finished this piece several weeks ago, but I only got around to photographing it recently. This is one of many wonderful views in Monument Valley in Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona. This particular scene is visible right from the dirt road that winds through the place.

I not only like the view, I also liked the small desert lupine (the blue flower) that was really there at the time. It's a little hard to see, but it's near the bottom of the image, right of center.

It's hard to go wrong when painting (or photographing) Monument Valley. Everywhere you look, it's beautiful and magical. No wonder so many western movies were filmed there.

More "eBay Paintings"

By the title, you might gather I make paintings with the intention of listing them on eBay. If you assumed such, you are right!

I've posted another desert painting on eBay tonight, along with a few others I placed there last night. Tonight's piece is entitled "Desert Poppies" which, at least on my monitor, look more brownish than orange-yellow as they appear on the painting. (That's a hazard of trying to sell anything online where color rendition is important).

If you'd like to check it out on eBay, the direct link is here. Remember -- you have only a week! But it's a great way to get some affordable original art.

Summer

This is a painting I finished recently entitled Summer. As you might guess, I thought there might actually be a few people who prefer landscapes that are NOT desert scenes!

Since it is summer (the torrid temperatures here in the Mojave desert prove it), I thought it might be fun to paint a scene that looks like a place I would like to go right now to relax, kick off the shoes, cool off and listen to the sounds of nature. And, of course, there are NO mosquitoes, ants, spiders or other obnoxious critters here at all.

I muted the greens quite a bit for this painting. Art comes first, of course, but I have to be a little practical and remember that green isn't the most saleable color right now. If that ever changes, I'd love to do landscapes with rich, vibrant greens. But for now, I'll keep those colors subtle.

And for one week only, this piece is available on eBay!

It's summer. Take it easy!

We're Off to See the Lizard

We're Off to See the Lizard is a portrait of a side-blotched lizard, a very common species here in the Southwest. What I like about them is they have all of the colors of the Southwest: rusty red, earth tones and turquoise blue. This group of color is my favorite combination and explains, in part, what it is I love about the desert so much!

These lizards are small: about 6"/15cm from tip-of-nose to end-of-tail, and are quite prolific. For that reason, they commonly end up in the bellies of roadrunners which, depending on whether you favor the predators or the prey, leaves you feeling either indifferent or sad.

I included some Anasazi pottery shards that a Native American friend collected for me in Arizona. (She tells me these shards are scattered all over the desert floor in certain parts of AZ). The lizard, of course, is entirely unaware of these relics of man's presence, and seeks only to continue its business of searching for food or, possibly, a mate.

He's Out of My Life

The Michael Jackson memorial service was earlier today. I wasn't able to watch all of it; in fact, I saw only bits and pieces.

I was surprised at how low key the event turned out to be. I almost expected more of a concert with dancing in the aisles, lots of flash photography and other concert activities. Instead, people seemed to display a reverent attitude; that -- indeed -- the fans' hero was gone and wasn't coming back; and the focus was on the man's artistic accomplishments, not on the occasions when Michael had personal and legal battles that seemed to knock him off of his King of Pop throne.

I've always felt Michael Jackson was a phenomenal performer, although -- merely a personal preference -- during his earliest years with the Jackson Five, his voice was a little too shrill for me, kind of like fingernails against a chalkboard. But his voice softened as he grew older, and his singing and dancing evolved into an art form that was truly his own. He was amazing to watch and listen to, and I'm sorry we'll never get to see what he might have accomplished had he lived to launch his comeback tour in the UK.

But -- Michael documented LOTS of CDs and videos, so we're not likely to forget his artistry. And whatever his life was like, tortured or not, I hope he's in a better place today, leading the choirs of heaven in both song and dance.

I'm one of millions who will miss ya, MJ!

(The photo is from this morning's memorial service showing Queen Latifah at the podium. Credit: Mark J. Terrill/AP/MCTMARK J. TERRILL/AP/MC).

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July to all!!!

Sorry this isn't a picture of fireworks -- I have some on 35mm slides, but no digital pix of them. However, this is an "experiment" -- an abstract painting I thought I would try. It sort of looks like it's exploding!

Night Shift

Night Shift is a new painting that shows a scene in Joshua Tree National Park in California. The size is 11" x 14"/28cm x 36cm, and the coyote is a little over an inch/2.5cm long.

This piece shows the influence of both the American 19th century Hudson River School artists and the 20th century surrealists on my work. In my own mind, sometimes it makes a nice combination!

Monsoons

It's monsoon season again. I'm not sure if it's my imagination, but it seems like it's earlier than usual.

Monsoon season is what we in the Southwest get during the summer. Moist tropical air from the gulf of Mexico works its way north into Arizona, which often results in summer thunderstorms and rain. Further west in the California deserts, however, we don't get the rain as often. We mostly just get the humidity -- lots of it!

So we don't always get the dry heat that deserts are famous for. In fact, it feels very tropical and muggy around here. The skies remind me of the heavy, moisture-laden landscapes of the Old Master Dutch paintings, and in fact are the types of skies I typically paint.

I like the way these skies look, I just don't like the way it feels!

Unfortunately, we don't have air-conditioning. We have an evaporative cooler. Most of the time it's more than adequate, but when it's humid, it barely cools at all.

So we're in a good news/bad news situation. The good news: I have lots of reference material for painting skies. The bad news: the weather is miserable, and so is this artist right now!

The photos above look across the valley in which we live. In place of those deep-blue cloudless skies, we have atmospheric hazes that separate the overlapping mountains, along with the cloud shadows and spots of light that dramatize the land. And clouds. Lots of 'em!

Dates with Eternity

David Carradine. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson.

I know we're all destined to face eternity. I just didn't think so many were going to do so at the same time. Who knows...Patrick Swayze's turn may be coming up.

Rest in peace, folks.

Goin' to Town!

Most of the saguaro cactus I've seen in bloom usually had the flowers at or near the tops of the branches or main trunk (like the one on the right in the top left photo). But THIS particular specimen here in town is goin' to town, with flowers all over the upper portions of the cactus!

Laguna Beach

Whew!! It's getting hard to squeeze in the painting time I need, in between working outside on the house trim, doing computer and promotional stuff, and dealing with the fact that I get REALLY sleepy in the afternoon. This last item is a tendency I've dealth with all my life, but these last few years, I can't seem to ignore it anymore. I end up taking a nap (whether I want to or not) for an hour or so, then I'm groggy for another hour! Sheesh!!!

So as long as I'm sleeping, I might as well dream about one of my favorite places: Laguna Beach, CA.

Besides the natural and parklike settings there, Laguna Beach has a cute village atmosphere that also features -- surprise! -- art galleries! Many of them show works that I personally don't care for (in fact, some of the pieces are such turn-offs, I actually feel discouraged about the entire art world!) But some of the work is wonderful. Thankfully, I know which galleries to visit to see the good stuff!

California has lots of beautiful beaches and beach communities, but IMO, Laguna Beach is without peer. And the art scene there is the icing on the cake.

WIP

WIP stands for "Work In progress."


Following are a set of pictures showing progress on a painting I'm currently working on:

"A" is the original photo I made of a scene in Joshua Tree National Park in California. I like the look of the place, but I think it could use a little more "oomph."

In "B," I've finished the sky (complete with a setting sun) and distant granite formations. The foreground is mostly blocked-in as well.

Now I'm at a point where I need to think about where to locate the foreground Joshua trees. Sometimes I'll locate objects exactly where they are in nature, but in this case, I wanted a more intriguing composition.

To help me with my composition before making the major commitment of painting over my hard-worked sky, I placed a sheet of glass over the painting (which is dry at this point) as you see in "C." (The glass is heavily scratched because I sometimes use this sheet as a palette, scrapping dried paint off with a single-edge razor blade). I paint some rough sketches of Joshua trees on the glass, scrapping off images I don't like, making adjustments until I think I see what I want.

Then I painted in the Joshua trees. In "D," the trees are blocked in, and I'll add details during the next painting session. Then all I should have to do is finish the foreground shrubbery, maybe add a critter of some kind, and I'll be done!

Composing an image is often a "no-duh," but sometimes a little help can be nice. It may already exist in a photo I'm using, or I may make a detailed pencil sketch or even a small painting so I can see it before working on the "real" piece. But this time, the old "paint on the glass" stunt seemed to do the trick!

ACEOs

"ACEO" is an abbreviation for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals". They are the size of a trading card -- 3.5" x 2.5"/8.9cm x 6.4cm. As the name implies, they can be original mini-paintings, or they can be prints (like lithographs) or reproductions.

Apparently, these little items are the hot thing in the art world these days. They're small, to be sure -- but it's a way people can own an original work of art for a very small price. Like trading cards, they can be traded, bought, collected, used to impress your friends, whatever! Buyers can find ACEOs on sites such as etsy.com and, of course, eBay.

So-o-o...I'm just gonna have to give these a try! I have sold original paintings on eBay before, and I've set up an account on etsy but really haven't done much with it before. Offering ACEOs should be a way to produce lots of little paintings that anyone -- even YOU! -- can afford. I think it'll be fun for me to make these, too.

Stay tuned for news on the ACEO front!

Varnishing Act

Yes, that's varnishing, not vanishing, act!!

Varnishing a painting is the last thing I do to the artwork itself (framing is a separate issue). It's not a particularly fun or glamorous activity, yet it's so necessary. Varnish darkens the dark areas, so I don't really see what a painting looks like until it's varnished. It also unifies the surface, which often appears as a checkerboard of shiny and matt areas.

As you may have picked up elsewhere, I do lots of transparent glazes when I paint. This gives a stained-glass quality to the piece; however, the effect isn't immediately obvious. Varnishing is an important aspect of bringing out the glazes, much as polishing stones brings out their patterns and characteristics.

After the final brushload of paint goes on the work, I allow the painting to dry thoroughly for five days or more. Then I spend a day applying permanent acrylic varnish -- at least five-six coats of it, two hours apart to give each coat time to dry. The varnish is glossy, and with each coat, the depth and transparency of the glazes gradually come to life.

Unfortunately, water-soluble acrylic varnish remains somewhat tacky forever, so anything that remains in contact with it for a long time begins to bond to the varnish. If I (or a customer) decide to switch out a frame, the edges of the painting will be damaged when the frame is (literally) pulled off.

So after a few more days, I apply a final coat of a removable varnish called Soluvar. It's still acrylic, but it's suspended in turpentine instead of water. Soluvar is not tacky, so the painting isn't as likely to stick to other things, including frames. Also, if the painting ever gets too dirty for cleaning, the Soluvar can be stripped with turpentine, which will strip the dirt along with the varnish. Then more Soluvar can be re-applied.

Soluvar comes in glossy and matt finishes. I mix glossy plus matt in about an 80:20 ratio. This cuts the gloss a little so it doesn't look so danged wet and shiny; yet, the finish is glossy enough to allow those glazes to glow with an inner light.

Serious artists know varnishing is an essential part of the process of painting. It's a varnishing act!

I Don't Watch Sports on TV: Reason #1

I don't watch sports on TV. Not very often, anyway.

I've never been that excited about sports -- watching it OR doing it myself. I can think of 100 things I'd rather do than watch sports.

Still, I'll break the pattern once in a great while. Today was one example: we watched the Belmont Stakes. At least we like horses, so sometimes we'll watch horse-related sports.

But I was reminded of some reasons why I don't like television sports. The number one reason: the INANE and CONSTANT chatter!

When was the last time you heard anything intelligent spoken during a sports broadcast?

Commentator to losing team member: What happened today?

Team member: Well, the other team had a really strong offense, they were really on their game, they had some good moves; our team's defense was weak and had a few holes in our plays, but we'll come back even stronger and get 'em NEXT time.

Isn't all of that obvious? Didn't the winners simply play better than the losers, assuming the teams were evenly matched in the first place? What ELSE could the team spokesperson say to explain their loss? In which case, why bother interviewing the guy/gal in the first place?

Back to the Belmont: lots of interviews, lots of utterly forgettable comments made. Constant chatter. Do viewers really like this stuff? If so, why? Does drinking more beer make it all go down better? If viewers actually attended the race (or other event), they wouldn't hear the chatter then. Why bore us with it in the comfort of our homes?

And the Belmont Stakes at least a two-hour broadcast! Two-three minutes of racing, preceeded and followed by interviews and mindless blah-blah.

I realize a program like this probably can't function by airing only the race itself. OK, so maybe the trumpet fanfare, the race itself and the awarding of the trophy. Half an hour. If necessary, raise the advertising rates to make sure costs can be recovered in 1/2 hour. On TV, I've seen rooms decorated and paintings completed in that amount of time.

By the way, Summer Bird won. And I'm done watching TV sports for a long time.

Decisions, Decisions

I'm one of those who tend to feel extreme empathy for critters, especially if they happen to be cute.

Partly for that reason and also because I photograph the wild critters around here to use in paintings. As you can see from the attached pictures, bunnies and Gambels quail rank pretty highly on my scale of desirableness. (Is that a word?)

So to ensure I have a steady supply of critters around to photograph when I need more pix, I put food out for them every evening before sundown: rabbit pellets for the bunnies, and chicken scratch for the quail. I also have hummingbird feeders (two) for their namesake and a suet feeder, originally intended for woodpeckers. And I have containers of water outside -- I replace and refill them with fresh water every day. It all makes for happy critters.

But then there's this danged thing called the Law of Unintended Consequences. All of these types of food have been attracting more than the critters I wanted to attract -- some of these are OK, some are not.

Among the undesirable critters: ground squirrels. The worst ones are the species that look like tree squirrels (although their tails aren't quite as bushy), and they DIG HOLES!! Lots of them. They live to dig. Some holes would be okay--it does help aerate the soil. But it can be overdone.

It seems like these last few years, the squirrels have been cranking out LOTS of offspring. We have a lot of cholla cactus growing around here, so I suspect it's hard for predators to catch them and keep the numbers under control. And, of course, having food and pans of water so easily available to them isn't helping the situation, either.

Last year I bought a "catch-'em-alive" trap which I've used to capture and relocate squirrels, one at a time. But this year, I can't seem to catch up. It appears as I reduce the numbers of squirrels, other squirrel "families" move in to take their place. So I'll think: "Ah...only one more squirrel to catch and that's it." Nope--the next day, I see five new ground squirrels!

So, decisions decisions. Do I stop feeding and watering ALL of the wild critters in the hope the ground squirrels will go elsewhere, or at least not be encouraged to take up residence here? Maybe. I hate the thought of it, and I hope I don't put out enough food to the point where the bunnies and quail are entirely dependent on me to survive; otherwise, they could starve to death without me feeding them.

But the ground squirrels are slowly destroying this area--even the parts that are natural desert. They even eat the cactus, roots and all! How do they do that without embedding millions of stickers in their mouths and faces?

Maybe this is one of those cases where the few have ruined it for all. Let's just hope I have enough pictures. And let's pray for the bunnies and the quail. But not for the ground squirrels.

Quail By Moonlight

I try to make it a point of getting new critter pictures whenever I can.

Here, I was able to get a shot of a male Gambel's quail by moonlight. Impressed?

Na-a-h-h...don't be. It's a daylight shot, but I didn't realize I had this particular adjustment on the camera set for tungsten light. Thus, daylight pictures came out too blue.

Oh, well. I discovered my mistake soon enough and corrected the setting. For painting purposes, what I really need is the overall form of the quail. I have other references (including the live quail running around outside) to get the coloring right.

Besides, maybe this male is seeking a romantic encounter...by moonlight!

Kelly Clarkson and Fat-Ness

I came across this and other pictures of singer Kelly Clarkson on a number of Websites. Most of those sites commented on how fat and, therefore, unsightly she's become. One person mentioned that since we look up to these celebrities and they need to give us the best they're capable of, they shouldn't allow themselves to become this out of shape because then they can't give their best.

????? I can't say how true that last statement is, other than saying Hollywood and other "experts" of culture have somehow succeeded in, IMO, brainwashing the public into believing that thinness is the best look for women if they dare to appear in public.

I've mentioned in a previous post: one can look at paintings by the Old Masters who showed what the ideal females of their times looked like. They weren't skinny!

I also mentioned in that same post: I realize being overweight (according to medical charts) leads to conditions that can literally shorten life: heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes and even cancer. But, also IMO, this is an issue entirely independent from attractiveness or even -- dare I say -- sexiness in a woman. For me, a little weight is both attractive and sexy. I know, and have heard of, many other men who feel the same way.

Now, I'm NOT looking for additional female company. I've been happily married for over 24 years. But for my taste, Kelly Clarkson has never looked better! I know, of course, that she will be expected to lose weight because so many people and "experts" expect her to.

Kelly, I doubt you're reading this, but if you are, I say to you: "Girl, you look GREAT!!!"

Addicted?

I don't know where you stand on this issue, but I've become a little addicted to the computer.

I find I can't wait to get on to see if there are any e-mails, new Facebook posts, new artist forum comments, whatever. And, once I'm on, I'm hesitant about getting off! I find myself just surfin' the 'net, looking at things (or trying to find pages) that are purely for entertainment's sake.

The problem with that is, of course, it cuts into my work time. The type of paintings I do takes a long time -- certainly longer than if I simply shot paintballs at a large canvas and called it Art! (Well, OK, it would probably be art to some, but not for me -- not if I'm doing it, anyway).

So -- what am I gonna do about this? Do I need an intervention? A padlock on the computer? More self-discipline? Sa-a-a-y-y...maybe that's the answer.

But there's always that part of me that says: "Naaah!!! It's fun. Just do it!"

We'll have to see who wins: the little angel by my right ear, or the little devil by my left. In the meantime, I guess I'll see you in cyberspace!

A Flash of Color with a Sweet Tooth

Hummingbirds aren't the only birds that like hummingbird feeders!

We have two species of orioles that live in the desert. (I have seen a third species, but it's more of a visitor, not a resident). Pictured is one of them -- a hooded oriole. (It's hard to see because he's facing away from us, but he has a yellow-orange head with a black "hood" under his beak).

While many of the colors here in the desert are muted, some are not. Seeing this flash of bright yellow-orange against a deep-blue sky is breath-taking. A flash of color with a sweet tooth!

The Inspiration and the Painting

This is one of the few time I feel a side by side set of pictures is warranted.

The photograph on the left shows a view of an area near Eureka Peak in Joshua Tree National Park, CA. The image on the right is a painting I made from the photo. The size is 8" x 10"/20cm x 25cm.

I made a couple of minor changes when I made the painting mostly in the interests of simplifying the painting and to add a little more color to the scene. This is what I call an "eBay painting" -- one that I do somewhat quickly, without the time-consuming glazes I normally use when I paint the material you see on my Website. Thus, I can sell "eBay paintings" much more inexpensively than I could my Website paintings.

I'll be posting this piece on eBay soon. I also want to try another site someday, etsy.com. Etsy is limited to fixed-price handmade items, unlike eBay which is an auction site for almost anything. Stay tuned...ah, um, I mean, keep checking your computer!

27 May -- Update: This painting is listed on eBay as of tonight. You can find it quickly by searching for the item number: 320376968859.

If You're in Germany, Look Me Up!

I was doing a Google search for my Website after hearing about some sites being infected with a virus and Google places a warning beside the infected sites. No Google warning (so far, thank God!), but I did discover southwestspaces.com is mentioned on a German Website! Some of the text is in English, and some is in German:

http://www.123people.de/s/mark+junge

So I appear on a site that mentions a number of Mark Junges (including a writer in Wyoming who contacted me years ago), but I wasn't searching for my name -- I was searching for my Website. Apparently, the two are indelibly linked.

Either way, people in Germany can find me!

A Wildlife Moment

Every so often, we hear evidence of cats outside who are obviously disagreeing about something. That's not that unusual for most folks, I guess, although around here, leaving pet kitties outside isn't a good idea. Too many coyotes would LOVE to make a meal out of those furry felines.

Last night before going to bed, I heard that characteristic "whhhaaarrrr!" of cats who were thinking about "gettin into it," except the two cats somehow sounded meaner than usual.

Being a moonless night, I flipped on a spotlight fixture so I could see what was going on out there. I was quite surprised to see not house cats, but bobcats, squaring off and making truly nasty, scary noises. I quickly turned the light off again so, if they decided to turn physical, I wouldn't put the bobcat facing the blinding lights at a disadvantage.

Well, the felines "whhhaaarrr'ed" at each other a while longer, then all was quiet. Perhaps next time (and I'm sure there will be a next time), I'll try to take a picture that might be useful for a painting some day.

But this is one of the things I love about living in the desert. It's still rural enough here for these kinds of "wildlife moments" to happen for us to see. And it provides inspiration for art.

Is It Real, or Is It...?

Pictured is one of my favorite species of lizards to "hide" in a desert painting.

It's a zebra-tailed lizard (Callisaurus draconoides), a species that is fairly common throughout the Southwestern deserts. I've seen them a number of times and have even been lucky enough to take some pictures of them before they disappear within the blink of an eye.

This particular individual, however, is a sculpture. It looks real, but it's made of polymer clay. (Polymer clay can be "fired" in a standard household oven, unlike dirt-style clay which must be fired in a high-temperature kiln). He (or she?) was made by an artist friend who for years has been making lizards, snakes, frogs and turtles. Lately she's been adding more colorful/decorative critters to her production.

The artist's name is Sandra Lee, and you can see what she's been up to here: http://picasaweb.google.com/SandraLeeandNat

I have quite a collection of her sculptures, most of which have appeared in numerous paintings. These, plus with the help of the photos I've taken of these desert reptiles, have aided me greatly in adding just a little life to my desert artwork.

Cactus Flower -- Future Painting

This little beauty was blooming last week, and I thought I should take a picture of it since this was the last bud. I knew it would wilt within a couple of days, and I wanted to get a photo with the cactus backlit.

Why backlit? I have an idea for a painting that involves a night scene with the full moon in the sky and this cactus in the foreground.

I don't know exactly when I'll get a chance to work on this particular idea. But when I do, I'll already have the materials I'll need when flowers are not available. Since it'll be a night scene, I'll be altering the colors, so an exact color match isn't necessary (although I did some color-matching for these flowers a long time ago when I painted a flower from life).

I've sometimes said in artist's statements: I live to paint; and when I'm not painting, I'm thinking about future paintings. That last point is what I was doing today: collecting reference material for the day when I'll need it.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

...or is that bizzee bizzee bizzee?

I'm still working on getting paintings done, of course, but I spend more time these days marketing myself, especially via my Website.

Plus--we're preparing for a different kind of painting: the trim on the house needs to be scraped, primed and painted. Then I need to install rain gutters (which I removed the last time we painted but never replaced). We painted the trim a few years ago, but the paint didn't last -- we suspect water was running off the roof and leaking under the edge flashing. But we had the roof fixed up a year ago, so new trim paint should last longer.

Funny--this kind of painting doesn't give the same satisfaction as fine art-style painting. However, it'll be nice to get it done and the rain gutters put up.

Meanwhile, the promotion continues, and hopefully I'll have enough energy to do the type of painting I need to do!!!

Wine and Sewage

I had to leave an online artists forum recently. I couldn't take it any more.

This particular forum offers quite a wide range of topics dealing with art. But the one I visited the most was the "Art Business" section because, like so many other artists, I'm trying to get answers about surviving financially as an artist, especially in this economy.

One of the "contributors" is a guy who makes little stained-glass sailboats and dragons. Frankly, he seems to be rather full of himself as he over-generalizes, provokes others to anger and can't really respond to disagreement; rather, he ignores it and continues to repeat the same tired comments he's become known for on that forum, or even accuses the disagreer of making personal attacks against him.

Others have already disappeared from the forum, and I'm just the latest. Some of what this guy says may be valid, but when so much of his approach seems counterintuitive or at least unrelated to other artists' experiences, it's hard to know what can be believed.

It reminded me of a pearl I picked up years ago:

If you add a spoonful of wine to a barrel of sewage, you have ... sewage.
If you add a spoonful of sewage to a barrel of wine, you have ... sewage.

Three Paintings at Once

Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm going to try to have three paintings going on at once!

Oil painters have been known to do this because of the drying times involved with oils. In my case, I'm in somewhat of a hurry to get these three particular paintings finished ASAP -- and I can't prioritize them, so I'll just HAVE to work on all three at the same time!

They are:

1. A Joshua tree scene just before sunset, with a sky similar to the Yosemite National Park scene shown above;


2. A second scene with Joshua trees, only it'll be done without all the transparent glazes. This piece will be offered on eBay or possibly some other online site other than my Website;


3. A Christmas image, of all things: not that I'm thinking about Christmas these days, but this painting is intended for a Southwest-flavored Christmas card. I know of several companies that might pick this up, or I may self-publish the design and sell boxes of cards locally later this year.

In the meantime, I've got a lot of chores to do around the house. I've been letting things go because I've been trying to paint so much. But with the economy slowed down, the need to produce-produce-produce isn't as acute right now.

Of course, that doesn't mean I won't be going insane trying to do all this stuff. Wish me luck!

ANOTHER Website Revision!

I spent most of the day revising my Website again. I decided the nine paintings I featured, three under each of the three categories, weren't enough.

So I lengthed the pages so I could show more paintings. Also, on the "Desert Paintings" page, I included some of my works the galleries have on hand right now, along with links to the galleries.

So if you haven't seen the site lately (or especially since Wednesday, 6 May), stop by and pay it a visit:

http://www.southwestspaces.com or http://www.desert-paintings.com.

If you have any comments or questions, comment me here or send an e-mail via the Website.

Painting of Another Favorite Mountain Range

In my previous post, I showed a recent painting of one of my favorite mountain ranges: the Sneffels Range in Colorado. (I wish I would have spent a LOT more time in that area while we actually lived in Colorado!)

The piece I've shown now is the Sonoyta Range which is in Mexico. I'm actually in the USA, viewing this scene from within Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona.

Besides the rugged appearance, the range features a peak (Punto Sonoyta -- Sonoyta Peak) in the middle and then drops away on either side of that peak. This makes it easy to make the Sonoyta Peak a center of interest, which I normally do whenever I paint these mountains. All of the other elements -- cactus, flowers, shadows -- function to set off the distant symbol of a rugged place.

Mount Sneffels in Colorado

Ah! I FINALLY finished updating my Website. I hope everything is working OK. Do me a favor: go there and buy about five paintings so I can make sure everything's working OK. =)

In the meantime, I posted some new paintings on the site besides revamping its look. One of the paintings appears here -- it's a scene of the Sneffels Range near Telluride, Colorado. Mount Sneffels is the tall peak right of center and is one of Colorado's "14'ers," meaning it's over 14,000 feet high (that's about 4.3km for you metric folks).

(That reminds me -- I meant to show both English and metric units for the sizes of the paintings on my Website. I'll have to fix that soon!)

The link in the first paragraph should work, but just in case, the site URLs are:

http://www.southwestspaces.com/ and http://www.desert-paintings.com/.

Changes Comin'

No, no, not the weather (although that changes a lot, too!)

I mean my Website (which, in case you forgot, is http://www.southwestspaces.com). Right now, I feature mostly paintings of the desert. While that area will always be my primary focus, I know not everybody wants to hang desert paintings on their walls.

So I plan to re-design things a little. Now, when you go to my site, you see a single picture of a painting and click on "Enter Site" to access the thumbnail page with all of the paintings I'm showing at the present time.

The comin' changes: the home page will have three pictures and captions -- "Desert Paintings," "Western Landscape Paintings (including Missions)" and "Wildlife Paintings." Click on one of those, and you'll be directed to a page with those types of paintings. No thumbnails: just the images, info and "Buy Now" buttons. The visitor will be able to navigate between the categories easily.

I hope to make these changes within another week or so. Let me know wotcha think!

Western Art and/or Fine Art

Last Saturday, I visited a Western art show that I've participated in a few times but, for the most part, I just visit to see what's new, talk with the artists I know (especially those I don't see any other time) and to try to get a feeling of what's selling and what isn't.

My own art has been evolving over the years, especially when it comes to my slowly increasing knowledge of how the Old Masters worked. One thing I've learned is the concept of selective focus. This idea first came to me by way of artist Virgil Elliot who pointed out how the Old Masters tended to paint a small area with sharp edges while softening or blurring the rest of the edges. This partly makes the viewer want to look at the sharper area (which is often the center of interest) and also actually makes the image look more realistic. After all, whatever we look at directly appears the sharpest to us while the rest of the view falls into our peripheral vision, where edges are -- guess what? -- less sharp. Next time you're in an art museum, look at some Old Master paintings and see what I mean.

Selective focus popped into my head a lot while I was looking at the paintings at the show. Except for watercolor paintings where everything was a little blurry, most paintings had lots of details which were uniformly sharp from side to side and top to bottom. Even distant features in the paintings seemed sharp. In short, the artworks seems to possess a sort of hyper-realism: realism that somehow wasn't. The paintings were sharper than photographs.

Another related thing I've learned over the years: it isn't necessarily hard to develop the technical skill to render objects realistically. But it IS harder to put some thought into one's art that raises it above the commonplace.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, everyone (although I realize for some of you, the day is almost over, depending on where you live)!

I was in college majoring in art when the first Earth Day occurred. I still remember faculty and students attaching black helium-filled balloons to -- I'd guess -- 100-foot/30m heavy-duty string, and both ends of the strings were affixed to building rooftops, forming huge arches of black balloons. These forms were intended to create a visual impression of the dirty smog and particulate matter that existed in the air over Los Angeles.

In those days, "ecology" was the buzz word used in advertising; today, we hear about "going green." Maybe tomorrow, it'll be something else.

I dropped out of college in 1973 but returned in the late 1980's to tie up the loose end that nagged at me for all those years. One of my instructors wanted us to complete a self-portrait as an assignment. I decided to make a drawing with an Earth Day-theme and later created a painting in 1988 from the drawing. That painting is featured here. (For some reason, the slide and subsequent PhotoCD made from the slide exaggerated my lip color!) As you can see, my back is turned to an incredibly filthy oil refinery as smog is beginning to creep into the forest in front of me, reflected in my glasses.

I may re-do the painting someday -- my rendering skills have increased tremendously in 21 years! Next time, I'd be more tempted to use an attractive female rather than my own (ahem!) face. But I probably wouldn't try to sell the work. The painting has an admittedly pessimistic theme, and I'm not sure anyone wants images like that on their walls. But it touches on my surreal past as an artist, and I'd like to squeeze more surreal works into my schedule. One of these days. (Yeah, right!)

Nuages

OK, OK, "nuages" is the fancy-sounding French word for "clouds."

I almost always put clouds in my landscape paintings, even though clouds aren't necessarily common in the Southwest desert skies. But they do add interest, and sometimes clouds can be the best pictorial element in a painting.

I rarely attempt to paint clouds entirely out of my head -- it's harder to do than one might expect. For this reason, I have a vast library of cloud photos that I've taken over the years. I've attached a jpeg of some clouds we had around here just this morning. The top part of a Joshua tree pierces the sky in the lower lefthand corner. As you might imagine, I suspect these clouds will appear in a painting in the future.

I've also been inspired by the cloudscapes of contemporary painter Dale TerBush. He always had a way of making clouds look very soft and feathery. Over time, I've learned how to paint clouds that same way, although maybe not in as fanciful a manner as he. (Also, over the years, Dale evolved into a more dramatic and colorful look, which I haven't). Regardless, Dale's rendering of clouds has been a factor in my own development as an artist, and I would consider him to be one of my modern-day influences.

Infrared Flowers

The fun thing about infrared photos is how unpredictable the images can be.

In San Diego's Balboa Park (where I visited a couple of times over the last few weeks), some of the planters were filled with blue and purple delphiniums. Now -- if you remember your physics and your studies of the electromagnetic spectrum, an object appears blue when it reflects blue light and absorbs green and, especially, red light.

Following this line of thought, one might expect blue flowers to absorb infrared radiation as well, since this part of the spectrum lies next to the red frequencies. Nope!! As the accompanying pictures show, blue flowers DO reflect infrared.

I'm not an expert on insects, but I believe they're sensitive to infrared. Thus, if flowers want to be pollinated, they must do their best to attract the pollinators. In this case, it appears that the flower colors we see may not be that important to the bugs. Reflection of infrared may be all insects care about, as well as the scent flowers give off.

I wonder if the infrared photo is closer to what the insects see than what we see.

Sold!

Note the painting in the previous post.

I dropped that piece off at one of my galleries yesterday in the late morning. It sold about four hours later!

It would be nice if it always happened that way. In fact, I dropped off two more small pieces at the same gallery today. I haven't heard yet that either sold.

Maybe tomorrow!

Springtime in the Desert

Springtime in the desert!

While we haven't gotten as many wildflowers this year since the rainfall was about 1/2 normal, we still got to see SOME color in what can otherwise be a colorless region. The painting I've posted here shows how it looked in a previous year, when the rain was above average and the plants loved it!

I hope to revise my Website soon (in case you forgot, my site is http://www/southwestspaces.com or http://www.desert-paintings.com) when this and other paintings (some of the desert, others not so desert-y) will be added. I hope you'll check back soon.

In San Diego

Well, neither of the paintings I placed in an exhibit in a Balboa Park gallery sold, so I drove down there to retrieve them.

Before I did, I wandered around Balboa Park taking color pictures for paintings, and infrared pictures just because I like infrared pictures!

While I was in an area planted with blue flowers (delphiniums and lavendar), I talked with another artist who was painting en plein aire (or, as I like to say, "in plain air"). His pieces were fun and definitely captured the feel of Balboa Park. His name is Norm Daniels, and he even has a Website you can visit: http://www.normhere.com. I'm always a little amazed that artists can sit outside on a beautiful day and crank out paintings so quickly while I have to labor over them inside in my studio.

Anyway, I've attached a black-and-white infrared photo and a color picture from the delphinium garden (close to where Norm was working) showing the Spanish colonial-style tower of the Museum of Man.

Art In a Relativistic World

"Be original. Innovate. Invent. Following preset rules creates only mediocrity and complacency. Rules are for followers."

"In all things, the greatest progress and improvement comes from ignoring arbitrary settings. If we are to cultivate anything, we should be cultivating invention and originality."

"How can there be creative originality if there are fixed boundaries? … Good thing many creative artists don't believe in boundaries. At least the artistic leaders don't."


The above comments appeared on an art business forum I sometimes contribute to. The person who wrote these pearls never really defines his terms, so I'm not entirely clear on what he means by "rules" and "boundaries."

But he seems to be saying that all of the knowledge developed over the centuries should be utterly ignored. Just do whatever you want. After all, who is in a position to tell another artist what's good or bad art?

This seems to be an ongoing situation among artists who are trying to be completely original in making modern art. Traditional painters like myself are, of course, aghast at advice like this.

After all: what other endeavor but the field of art is ignorance considered desirable?

Wotta View!

This is another infrared photo I made recently. The scene is from Keys View in Joshua Tree National Park, looking toward the Southeast.

A few days before, we had high winds which put a lot of dust into the air. The next day, it was amazingly clear, and infrared is able to penetrate atmospheric haze that would appear in a "normal" photo.

The dark horizontal band immediately below the horizon on the left is the Salton Sea. One of the mountain peaks right above the Sea is Signal Mountain, which is in Mexico near the border with California.

Wouldn't you just love to have a house with a view like this?

Woe Is Me!!!

Gloom and doom, gloom and doom...

Today's my birthday. I'm 60 years old! The big six-oh. Good grief, I'm SO old. I guess that's why I use the name "Jurassic Mark" as a handle sometimes.

I know, I know...getting older beats the alternative!

I decided I deserved a small bouquet of flowers, although I didn't pick them. These are Mexican goldpoppies that I found in Joshua Tree National Park, California.

A Handsome Fellow!

Isn't he cute?

I took a series of pictures of this little guy sitting on a branch we inserted in a DirectTV post that used to hold a dish antenna. The males like to fly up to an observation post so they can see what's going on and to alert the rest of the covey if danger is present.

If you happen to be a female Gambels quail, I'm sure you'd be in love right now!

Progress

I'm slowly working my way back into painting and doing other types of art-business stuff. My brother is still on the mend from his quadruple coronary bypass surgery, and I know I'll still need to go out there once or twice a week to check up on him after our oldest brother returns home.

I managed to finish and varnish two small paintings this week -- pix to follow -- and I've started another painting showing a Colorado scene. I still need to re-vamp my Website (in fact, NOW would be the perfect time to order a painting, especially if you live in California: the sales tax rate went up on April 1st, and I haven't changed that yet on my Website!) My Website, in case you forgot or are unaware of the link over to the left, is http://www.southwestspaces.com/ or http://www.desert-paintings.com/).

But at least I'm in three shows right now and I actually put paint to surface today! That's progress!!