Mountains and Mesquite - and Scenes from the Area

Mountains and Mesquite

Oil on canvas, 10x10

After four days of rain, the sky cleared, and I went out to paint. It felt great to be in the clean, crisp air,  surrounded by the colors and scents of the desert, with the sun warm on my face. There is something here, in the steep climbs and bright folds of the mountains, in the bare yellow earth and the strange and fascinating vegetation, something in the way the sun hits all of this that calls to me to paint.

It's not like the scenes at home don't call to me!  I love painting on the Eastern Shore, and in the hills of Virginia, and all along the East Coast. I love the fields and marshes around Wachapreague, the houses and the beautiful sky, the ocean and the boats.

But the scale here is so different. The sky is enormous and, often, filled with clouds of brilliant, raucous colors. The mountains are pure muscle, with the power of the fire and the brute, cataclysmic shifting of the earth that made them, still all but visible in their jagged edges and steep flanks. And all of this somehow sends its power out, to me as a painter, and, I believe, to everyone who lives here and pays the least bit of attention.

Here's my painting in the landscape

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Scenes from Tubac

It rained for days and days...

Here's my dad, and in the background, my stepmother Paula. 

The Center of the Arts here in Tubac has an annual national exhibit called "Aqueos." It is limited to water-based media, and it seems to run around the same time as the Tubac Arts Festival. Dad and I went, and had a great time. Here's my favorite painting: 

The Center also has what they call a Masters Gallery, with a very few, extremely talented and experienced artists selected. The newest master is Nick Wilson, who lives in or near Tubac. He is an amazing sculptor, and also makes incredibly, really astonishingly detailed animal portraits. He paints with razor blades, I found out in one article - and he does paint hair by hair. Here's one that made me laugh, a bunny perfectly plumed as a parrot. My favorite of the paintings in the Masters Gallery is one that's a little off the mainstream - this one of a cowboy on horseback, pausing to read a letter. I love it. 

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 Here are a couple scenes from the area, after the rain stopped falling. 

With the Elephant Head formation in the background, some good-looking cows hang around, waiting for the weather to clear. My dad says that the Arizona economy depends on "the Four Cs - cattle, cotton, copper and climate." Who knew? 

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Dog of the Day

Dad and I saw this serious guy guarding his car, and doing a great job.