Hidden Marsh 24x18

NOTE: Photo is skewed on this...I no longer have photoshop to adjust...don't get seasick while viewing

.Not that I should be afraid of them but really, cops on bicycles (if I were a criminal) inspire about as much fear (or confidence for those of us who aren't criminals) as snakes on a plane. Which in my world would register about a .5 on the one-to-ten scale. I suppose they do accomplish some "good" in the inner city where I witnessed two of them being jovial but stern to a pile of sun-baked hobos passing around a small paper bag. I tooled by in my 1 ton Chevy truck which tries to anonymously guzzle six-mile-per-gallon gas through a 2 in gas line (fire hose) imagining the utter futility if one of those guys had reason to nab me. They would be blowing whistles and cranking their handlebar bells 'till their thumbs blistered and I wouldn't even notice them over the purr (roar?) of the 36 square inch carburetor intake. And that's at idle! I suppose an errant spoke could theoretically poke through the 12 ply tread if I were to inadvertently drive over one of their Schwinn 10 speeds. In that case I would have to stop and give myself up.
So went the musings in my painterly brain right before I started this new glorious sunset the other day.

The heights 30x40

Overlooking Tucson from the north. That's where this sky full of bluster was witnessed. Sometimes things are crazier than they appear, defying coherent explanation. Sometimes, there's inexplicable calm in the midst of outright bedlam. Well, however bland and blasé my life may seem to me, I must admit that it's not lacking for what could very well be considered exciting blog-fodder. It's just that the vicissitudes of life don't always contribute expeditiously to the verisimilitude of our little reality. Nor does my proclivity to exaggerated adherence to veracity necessarily make for profitable (or believable) reading. Take for instance our latest sortie across the border. One would think I had had enough of border skirmishes and third-world intrigue for one life. Apparently I haven't. Suffice it to say I am not in jail, was not shot at (this time) and am back in the safe (?) confines of my little desert studio peacefully painting away the hours till the unimaginable foists itself upon me with it's frequent and disconcerting irregularity. No, I will not tire you with the tedium of my yarn spinning...this time!
Just enjoy another big ol' painting...a speed painting demonstration video of this will be posted soon on You Tube . I'll add a link here in a day or two.

Gold Frame, Picacho Peak 30x24

The last of the 24k gold was used in the making of this frame. It's pretty nasty to work with. Well, compared to metal leaf it is. You just have to go about it in the time honored fashion and since I don't have a specialized gold leaf horse hair brush I have to pick the stuff up with my corroded blacksmith hands and fumble the delicate ephemeral sheets on to the size (glue). And since I've not used rabbit hide to make my gesso or glue in many years my reference to time honored technique is just so much expended breathe. As long as I'm confessing, let me say that neither did I burnish said frame with a polished agate...also part of the time honored technique. The result was still as splendid as you could hope for (picture doesn't do it justice) and short of disturbing my mental equipoise, no one should be any the wiser. (I have my own secret techniques)

Picacho Peak loomed large and stark against the backdrop of the southwest sky. It was Sunday last and we were on our way to visit some illegal aliens that reside in Phoenix (I bet you think I'm kidding) My rig was full of Mesican relatives and as I locked up the brakes on the freeway to snap a shot(s) of this cool scene all kinds of expressions of fear and wonder reverberated throughout the cabin in tongues known and unknown. Later that day we witnessed a huge squall of dust descend upon Casa Grande about 20 miles from the mountain here pictured. I did take a picture or two of that...maybe I'll post them here before too long.