Cloud Bank

CLOUD BANK       oil on canvas       11" x 14"

Summer Desert Things

Cassia pods (bush that has yellow flowers in the spring)

fallen Mesquite pods

Prickly Pear "branch" after flowering

Coyote Melon (wild), about 4" in diameter, looks deceptively edible, tastes awful...the little ground squirrels roll them around like big beach balls when they dry out, until the dry skins break and then the squirrels eat the seeds and probably store them, too...

Little July Paintings

SUMMER MUSIC   oil on canvas   6" x 6" x 1.5"

SUMMER SOFT       oil on canvas    6" x 6" x 1.5"

Creatures Continue

I have come to recognize the mating rituals of the gentle Mourning Doves...the male fluffs and preens his feathers and the female shakes her tail...

then they "kiss" with open beaks...it looks like the female even has her eyes closed here...

then they make this beautiful sculpture...

and then flutter up to the bird bath to have a drink...

meanwhile the  quail are still raising little ones...here they are walking down the road after sunset...

July Color Study

JULY COLOR STUDY     oil on linen    12" x 12" x 1.5"

Mojave Morning Sky

the sun appeared

the moon slid out of sight

and the light danced on the clouds overhead

looks like Paradise to me...

July Landscape Paintings

recently completed:

SOUTH CADIZ VALLEY AFTERNOON

oil on canvas        6" x 12" x 1.5"

 this one has recently gone to its new home in Yucca Valley:

SANDCLOUD SUNRISE     oil on canvas         12" x 12"

Joshua Tree at Sunset

I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing the interesting shapes of these trees silhouetted against the sunset sky...

Morning Snake

Red Racer, about 3 1/5 feet long, warming up in the just-risen sun

close-up of its amazing head...

Vegetables and the Cutting Board

growing vegetables in the desert?   a challenge!

here are baby yellow summer squashes

sometimes I am outside early in the morning, doing things before it gets too hot, for so long that I get very hungry and munch on grapes while I make breakfast...

yes, vegetables for breakfast, kind of like expanding an omelette so it is more fillings than eggs...the squash and onion in this photo come from my desert garden.  As  I looked at this image, I realized I have had this wooden cutting board for 30 years....seems impossible...and magical somehow...

Red and Black and White

RED & BLACK 1       oil on canvas   6" x 6" x 1.5"

RED & BLACK 2      oil on canvas    6" x 6" x 1.5"

Summer Pinks and Rabbits in the Shade

young jackrabbit and young cottontail stretched out in the cool sand under the car where the sun has not yet been this morning

PINK and GREEN 2    oil on canvas     6" x 6" x 1.5"

PINK and GREEN 3     oil on canvas    6" x 6" x 1.5"

Art is a Complex Affair

BLUE-VIOLET CIRCLE      oil on canvas     6" x 6" x 1.5"

Quote from Peter London's classic book, NO MORE SECONDHAND ART, that has been a treasure to me for a long time:

 (link on left)

"...a good deal of art is play, still more of it is acting, some of it is experiment, some of it role playing, some of it fantasy, some of it borrowing, some teasing, some misleading, some candor, some blind searching, some catharsis, some mistakes, some serendipity, some in fact accurate transcriptions of the way things are.  It's a complex business whose symbols are arcane and whose meanings are often obscure or purposefully obscured."

Early Morning Light on Ordinary Things

small barrel cactus

fluffy little creosote seed heads swirled by the wind into puddles of sunlit brightness around spring's dried plants

 

burgundy-flowered Desert Willow, backlit in the early sun

Little Pieces of Summer

PINK and GREEN     oil on canvas      6" x 6" x 1.5"

SUMMER SQUARE 2      oil on canvas      6" x 6" x1.5"

Hot Day Sunset

the sun slips out of sight at the end of a long hot day in the Mojave

Summer Rain

As I left my studio/home this afternoon, the thermometer read 104 degrees F in the shade, although there were clouds around...

in the northeast, the Boullion Mountains and the Sheephole range were disappearing in a thick low cloud that looked like rain...

there were dark clouds beyond Copper Mountain to the southeast as well, and then, startlingly, sun shining on the hills beyond so that they looked pure white...(could this have been hail covering?)

to the south, over the town of Joshua Tree, I could see a few streaks of rain going down...

as I got closer they became thicker and darker...

a wide-angle view...

I arrived in Joshua Tree to discover there had been a short heavy rainfall,  leaving huge puddles in the low spots...and it was a humid 73 degrees F...

(click on any photo to see larger images of these amazing clouds)

Mojave Summer

high today about 101 degrees F in the shade, humidity about 15%...

year-round residents, Black Throated Sparrows, at the bird bath... the water evaporates so fast I have to fill it twice a day in the summer...

MOJAVE SUMMER COMPOSTION

oil and found stuff on canvas       36" x 60"

(click on image to see larger)

Wings

small butterfly on Blanket flower

Kingbird landing on creosote branch

Summer Colors

YELLOW SQUARE      oil on canvas    8" x 8" x 1.5"

BURGUNDY SQUARE    oil on canvas  8" x 8" x 1.5"  

July Day

morning

the cottontails push away the top layer of sand and lie out flat on the cooler sand underneath to cool themselves...

male quail leading 3 very little ones...

the babies need to move fast and so have long legs and big feet...

last rays of sun...still ninety degrees but with a lovely wind...

cholla in the soft light as the day ends...

beloved Mojave...