The Self Portrait

It's Thursday, so tonight there is another two hour drawing session with a model. It is so important for me to draw, and draw often. It makes a difference in all of my art, whether it be abstract or figurative.

This week, I am working on a self portrait, which hopefully will turn out well enough to enter in a juried competition I have been thinking about. This is what I have so far, but it is obviously not done yet. I have given myself more hair than I really have, because as an artist you can do things like that. You see? There are advantages to being an artist!

I took a few photos of pencil cholla last night. The sun was setting, so all the light was that last little glow before the sun disappeared. This is pencil cholla, but it is not nearly as dangerous to dog paws as the silver cholla. That is the stuff that seems to be everywhere, and the spines get stuck in dog toes and people toes. Ouch!

This is going to be a short post, since I am itching to get in the studio. Have a super day, all!

Joshua Tree Nat'l Park 2

It may take a while to finish the posts from Joshua Tree National Park. I don't know why I am so unmotivated to post on my poor, neglected blog lately. Forgive me?

So this will be the plants, trees, and cactus post from the Park. The Joshua Trees in the park are gargantuan! I am sure they used to be this big outside the park at one time. I think quite a large number of the bigger trees in this area were chopped down for fuel. I will never get tired of these trees. I am particularly fond of the trees with the rock formations as a backdrop. You can click on the photos for a larger view. I had so many photos to include, that I didn't want to make them too big.

Sally and I drove to the cholla cactus garden. These are all Teddy Bear Cholla, or opuntia bigelovii, which are a little different from the cholla that grows near our house. The cholla near our house are probably silver cholla (opuntia echinocarpa). The Teddy bear cholla looked like they are getting ready to bloom, and I hope I can go back to the park to see that! I have never seen a blooming cholla before. This close up shows the old fruit and the new buds. If you want to read more about cholla varieties, I got my information from this link here.


We also drove to where the ocotillo patch is. These were some of the biggest ocotillo I have ever seen! Awesome. I took a photo with Sally standing next to one, for scale. They look really green, since we had some good rain over the winter. I think they are also getting ready to bloom. I am hoping to drag my husband to the park sometime soon, so he can see how awesome it is.

The thorny desert and a dog

This is a prickly place. Pono has had some encounters with the cholla (pronounced "choya") here that have left us on the floor with tweezers, trying to get the cactus spines out. The cholla is probably the most prolific of the spiny things here, but when you start to walk around, everything seems prickly. I hope he learns to avoid them soon. Cholla has earned the nickname "jumping cholla" because the spines seem to almost jump on you as you brush past. However, they don't actually jump on you, as I can attest to, since I got very close taking photos of them. They actually have segments that come off very easily, and those segments are what stick into clothing, skin and dog fur (and dog feet and anything else that gets too close!) The other thing that makes it that much more sinister is the fact that most of these cholla have a circle of dropped spiny segments on the ground around them. So if you are planning on walking near a cholla cactus, wear big boots! Another name for this cactus is "velas de coyote" or "coyote candles". That seems appropriate, since we have had numerous coyote sightings since we moved here.

Upon close inspection, I did find two different cholla with bird's nests in them. How clever of those birds to build a home surrounded by such a nasty looking barbed wire fence! Who would want to venture closer? It seems as though the bird most likely responsible for the nests is the cactus wren. I didn't actually see a bird, so I can't confirm this. This first nest looks like it was abandoned unfinished. According to a website I found on google, it is possible that the bird may also be a curved bill thrasher, but I really won't commit to that information, either.
In other news, I just listed a new (framed) monotype on etsy today! Click here to visit that and other goodies in my etsy shop.