Argos Paint Palette - - Original Works - - An Online Portfolio of Original Acrylic Fine Art Paintings by Artist

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- Original Works -

- An Online Portfolio of Original Acrylic Fine Art Paintings by Artist -

G a r y F i s h

These pages will be devoted to original acrylic paintings created in the United States by Gary Fish. They reflect the many scenes and compositions one may discover in the Western states of America, memories of the individual paintings as well as what was happening with the artist during those times.

[ These are one-of-a-kind, original artworks. No prints, posters, giclees, "limited editions" or any other types of reproductions exist of these paintings. A digital photo for copyright protection is filed for documentation purposes only ].

Additional work will be added to this page as time allows.

Click lower right hand corner of each image for larger view.

"Meltdown" / I couldn't resist this title! It's reasonably obvious that it was indeed a scene of melting snow. The original idea was to call it simply, "Colors of Winter", but on reflection (pun intended), I named this piece Meltdown. This painting was previously finished, but got lost amidst my "work in progress" paintings. I rediscovered it while looking for something else. That being said, this scene is from another of the favorite areas we like to explore around Lake Tahoe, California.

A high elevation cattle grazing area in spring and summer, it often looked like this scene during late winter melting. Horses and cattle are found grazing here in warmer weather. In this case, my inspiration for creating this painting was the balance of the white snow areas with the brown and blue areas of liquid. The colors connected with this scene made for a colorful scene.

The aspen trees displaying the brightly colored leaves all seemed to add up to a valid composition, from my standpoint, anyway. The foreground showed a cloud reflection, which I like to display on scenes of this type. It had all the basic elements I look for in a landscape scene. Those who dislike cold and/or snow scenes will of course have little interest in this type of scene, but I like the idea of winter snow melting off allowing the open land to begin thawing out toward warmer temperatures.

At least we know the snow is finally starting to melt, and that can oftentimes be looked on favorably.

"Off the Beaten Path" / I'm always receptive to a good mountain wildflower scene. This particular one featured one of my personal favorites, mountain lupines. I've done a number of wild lupine paintings over the years, and this one can now be added to the group. Initially, the balance of light and dark areas caught my attention. Good compositional format. Mentally, the viewer is invited to walk right out into the scene.

It also appeared as though it may have been an ancient campsite for native Americans. A large open field with piles of small rocks in the central area of the scene, which may have been an area of a campfire. A possible flat grinder rock, as well, on the right lower mid-region. These grinder rocks were used as an essential tool for grinding various nuts by ancient tribal groups.

It was a pre-sunrise scene. The proverbial "crack of dawn". Just a small, sunlit peak on the distant mountain, as the sun began to rise. The cool, purple-blue mountain lupines seemed to contrast well with the bright green shades of the plant foliage.

I can't see ever having painted "too many" of these types of scenes. A high elevation, mountain meadow filled with wild mountain lupines. The kind of scene I wanted to take home with me. That's not possible, of course, so a representative painting had to suffice to remind me that these natural views are still to be found out in wild nature.

It's really just a continuation of the popular series of wildflower scenes I painted in the deserts of southern California, and which largely established my reputation to many of my buyers/collectors. If I had a thousand painted scenes like this, it would still seem too few.

"Transition II" is a larger, modified version of "Transition" (shown below). Impressionistic in nature, I liked the composition, as well as the coloration of this particular scene enough that I knew this larger version (twice the size) would be a worthwhile effort, aside from the fun and challenge of creating it.

On this larger version, I decided to place a trail in the mid-ground area, heading back towards the mountain range in the background. Once again, as in many previous paintings, I had to decide what level of detail to place into this particular piece. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered. Why? Because someone, somewhere, would love it as it appears here, regardless of how much or how little detail was shown, dependent on the individuals preference when viewing and buying original artwork of this type.

That's the basic "reality" of paintings of this type and style. It's Impressionistic by design and intent. I've always liked paintings that "invite" the viewer in with a trail or road. A sort of mental transport to another region or location.

While painting this scene, I found myself wanting to be there, hiking down that trail. The canvas shown here basically depicts a late Spring scene in the backcountry, where you can still find patches of vibrant wildflowers that haven't yet "baked" away to nothing, in the increasing heat of the approaching summer season.

The signature is in the lower left hand corner.

"Transition" was inspired primarily by the pinkish-magenta flowers in mid-ground as they entered a more bluish purple shaded zone in the lower third of the painting. Part imaginary, part reality. Though this particular painting is new (2016), it reflects a return to a favorite style approach used when I painted large scale desert landscapes in the deserts of southern California; a classic Impressionistic interpretation.

I don't deny an attraction to the "color spectrum", as it presents challenges that are surprisingly evident (to say the least) as one works on a painting. Personally, I'm more attracted to a colorful, but more integrated scene. It's my hope that this painting, "Transition", fits comfortably into this category.

Since there are about a half-dozen or so types of blue (consisting of completely different chemical and mineral ingredients) in the painter's color choices, it opens quite a huge opportunity (many thousands of mixable shades) for exploration into this particular color and it's interplay with all the other equally fine colors.

Shadow, of course, is the most obvious areas of a composition that best utilize shades of blue and purple. As I discovered while painting in the southern California desert regions for many years, the shadow areas of a composition are a "wonderland" of bluish shades. All one has to do is observe and document them.

As a Contemporary California Impressionist, I'm greatly influenced by the French approach to this school of painting, more so perhaps than the California Impressionists. Exaggeration is part of the Impressionistic approach. Color emphasis is an enormous part of the Impressionistic interpretation, as is a fairly loose, but strategically placed series of brushstrokes, which can easily spin off into near-abstraction.

From my standpoint, it's exhilirating, and helps to make a particular scene come alive with colorful energy.

"Mendocino Coastal Inlet" struck me as a strong composition the moment I saw it. I could see that it would make for an interesting, eye-catching painting. Since I hadn't tackled an "atmospheric" scene in awhile, it was also just plain fun capturing the mood of a serene morning on the Mendocino California coast with the morning fog and mist slowly dissipating as the sun rose higher.

Does it look like I've used 3,800 shades of green in this painting? I utilized basically all that I've learned during the course of many years about painting with acrylic paint as I worked on this scene. The "bright palette" of colors I used reflects the influence of the Impressionists. From vapor-thin, watercolor-type applications, to thick, textured paint strokes. I don't always have the need to do this with all the paintings I work on. This particular scene called for it.

I also used the "harmonizing" tactic which Claude Monet and the Impressionist painters of the past excelled at, where the colors are brought into a balanced format throughout the scene. This greatly aids in pulling the picture together from a visual standpoint. For those collectors who like to see remnants of the initial pencil sketch I made when planning the lay-out...a few indications are visible upon inspection.

As a secondary attraction (for me), I could also see the muted, still vibrant colors of the scene were a bonus. I've always felt I haven't done enough coastal scenes (aside from my Lake Tahoe series). What may appear as a collection of haphazard, random strokes of colored paint, is actually carefully orchestrated and applied to entice the eye to explore all areas of the painted surface, rather than a single point of interest.

Now that I'm situated in Northern California I'll be doing more coastal scenes of this magical Northern coast area of the state.

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[I have added a new page to this website which demonstrates how different types of lighting conditions on a painting affect and appear to change the colors, using this painting as an example].

"Trail to the Coast". Lake Tahoe is referred to (locally) in four basic areas, north, south, east and west. Each of these areas has its own attractions, scenic highlights, and "exclusivities", due to how the historical development of the Lake basin region has progressed. In other words, they all have a different "feel". This particular scene depicts a windy day on the west side of the lake with whitecaps on the water. I was attracted to this scene by the contrast between the cool foreground shadows and the warmer golden greens of the trees.

One small sailboat was seen bobbing in the waves as it skimmed close to the shoreline. I imagined what a great view he must have from the boat as he sailed by the shore. (I get seasick, so I'm unable to venture out in boats). But the whole scene seemed like the classic depiction of that side of the Lake. Parts of the west shore of Tahoe are still relatively wild and untouched by human activity. Situated on the mountain slope and shore of the distant mountain range in this painting is the exclusive north shore lakeside community of Incline Village.

One might easily imagine this scene at any number of coastal locations. I find, often-times, that a certain percentage of art collectors do indeed relate to a scene from there own personal memories, often completely different from the actual location shown in the painting. I would say the west shore side of Lake Tahoe is easily the favorite area for us, with its many small towns and hamlets tucked into the coves and inlets, and we lived here ourselves for awhile, as well. We've spent many pleasant hours exploring that side of Lake Tahoe. The rest of Tahoe is more developed, but all parts of Lake Tahoe have areas of attraction dependent on what you're looking for.

This particular painting has been "under construction" for awhile. I decided to put in more detail in the shadow foreground areas. After the initial, basic scene is painted, I tend to set it aside and work on other paintings. Periodically, I'd return to this painting with a fresh viewpoint to check for balance and overall appearance, making changes as I built up the scene.

After that, I concentrate on how the painting looks under various lighting conditions (flourescent, natural daylight, and incandescent), and make adjustments to the colors as necessary. Why do this? Because I never know under what lighting conditions a buyer will display the work (or where the painting will be in subsequent years), in the office, living room, hallway, bedroom, etc.

All of which have there own lighting, and must be taken into consideration. Colors look much different under different types of lighting. It just makes for a more complete, well thought out painting that will fit most any environment it finds itself in.

"North Shore Afternoon". This scene reminded me of those moments when you're driving along the coast and catch a glimpse of the shoreline. Then....two seconds later, the scene changes to something else as you continue driving. A glimpse through the trees. And it could be an ocean shoreline or a lake, as is the case here. I've always liked these types of shoreline paintings, but never painted as many as I should have done.

This is also a good example of a scene that could easily be treated with so much detail that it would be too distracting (in my opinion). The temptation to start painting each and every separate pine needle crossed my mind, but I could see that weighing down this idyllic scene with too much detail would make it too overwhelming for the eye and distract from the basic feel of the overall scene.

I always figure if you're going to go to the time and trouble of painting in a lot of detail...why not just take a photograph? It saves a LOT of time and almost always turns out better, if detail is your goal. While I have done a few paintings over the years that do have lots of detail, it's usually dependent on the particular scene.

Normally I try to use more detail only when I think it will compliment a scene and not distract from the overall effect I want to bring out from the scene. Each scene (painting) has different priorities. There has to be a stopping point for every painting, and each artist has to decide when that point is reached. There is no "golden rule" indicating when a painting is finished.

Not every scene benefits from excessive detail. Some people are fascinated by excessive detail...others find it too distracting. Some scenes "read" better with more detail, other scenes can be nearly ruined by it. There is no "golden rule" to go by. With most of my work, I find it far more preferable to suggest detail (as most of the Old Master painters did), leaving it to the imagination of the viewer to "complete the picture", as it were.

This scene is found around the north side of Lake Tahoe. The distant mountain range is where Incline Village is located.

"Mountain Valley Lupine". A colorful scene often found in mountainous regions in spring and summer. Large patches of wild purplish-blue lupine flowers. Mainly, I like the color of lupines. Ranging anywhere from light blue to a dark purplish blue. Easily one of my favorite "floral scene painting" topics. I've done many scenes over the years featuring lupines.

The other orange-red flower is called an "indian paintbrush" flower. Quite often, lupines and indian paintbrush can be found (as shown here) growing together. Two great colorful wild flowers. The contrast between the two works great, as well. Placed in the mountain valleys, it creates an almost dream-like combination.

As such, it's part of my "Escape Zone 101" series, which I add to period-ically with these 12 inch square canvases.

"Golden Afternoon". This is another recent painting. A painting created (sketched, drawn, painted) from my collection of Lake Tahoe images. Perfect timing for the approaching fall season, it's one of the many back-country roads that are scattered throughout the Tahoe National Forest region of California. It's also where we used to go hiking, let the dog run around and explore nature when we lived in that region.

This painting will never be displayed in a gallery. Intended to be the "flagship" painting for a new collection of paintings, a neighbor of mine spotted me working on it and was fascinated by it's development as I progressed through it to completion.

He ended up buying it.

"Rose Cottage" is notable (as a minor level footnote) for being the very first painting I did using acrylic tube paint. I had previously painted exclusively with oil paint for about twelve years, so I knew a lot about compositional structure, balance, etc., but otherwise had no practical experience with acrylic paints.

Since acrylic paint dries within a few minutes, it initially presented quite a challenge to make acrylic have an oil paint look. Luckily, I befriended an artist who had worked for over twenty years using only acrylic paints. I was then able to pick up considerable knowledge of this "tricky" acrylic medium by simply watching this artist work. It was an unbeatable opportunity I took full advantage of, and gained tremendous insights along the way.

The subject itself was an abandoned old seaside cottage on a slightly foggy day in the California central coast region, around Mendocino. According to the story that accompanied this image (a photo in a magazine), the rose bushes in the garden of the former owner had now become wild and overgrown to the extent that it began to climb up the walls of this old cottage.

It seemed like as worthy a subject as anything else, so I decided to see if I could make something believable out of this scene. It sold almost immediately which encouraged me to go forward exploring the possibilities of acrylic paint.

"Lake Tahoe Afternoon" was one of many compositions I explored while residing in the Tahoe area. It's in an area I used to hike in on the west side of the Lake. So many artists have painted the scenery of Lake Tahoe for so many years, it's nearly impossible to be unique and original for an artist painting Lake Tahoe scenery. I wanted to try a slightly different approach with this small paining.

This painting wasn't in my possesion for long, so I suppose I succeeded if finding a ready buyer was any indication of a "successful" painting. The rugged, overcast day portrayed in this scene was followed the next day by a vigorous snowstorm, lasting two or three days, sweeping through the region which left nearly three feet of snow at this location.

The first signs of the approaching storm were indicated by the small, gray-blue clouds in the upper right-hand area of the sky, which I captured in this painting, not realizing what would come eight hours later.

"Lakeside, Lake Tahoe, California" was one of four paintings I did of this area of the west shore of the Lake. The large, pinkish flowers are apparently called fireweed, as I recall. An odd name for a truly majestic wildflower. These flowers don't appear every spring, but are dependent on a wet, saturating winter of ample rain and snow. I camped out at a state campground by the lake in order to be close to this scene.

I first watched to see how the varying light conditions from dawn to evening affected the overall "feel" of the scene, making careful note of compositional structure and balance. I debated on whether or not to place some sort of watercraft (boat) on the water, but decided it would be too "schmaltzy" to do so, at least from my standpoint. Not every Lake Tahoe painting needs to depict some sort of boating activity to be a successful painting.

I have, however, placed boats on other scenes when it seemed to compliment the overall painting. I noticed some Tahoe artists concentrated exclusively on scenes where boats were the dominant subject matter (catering to the boaters). Starting with my very first Lake Tahoe painting, I decided to make boats just one of many other "things" one might observe while viewing magnificent Lake Tahoe, along with a myriad of other subjects that reflected life in Tahoe.

"Emerald Forest" is based on a local hiking area on Lake Tahoes west shore area. A magically beautiful area with a small river running through it which feeds into Lake Tahoe and adjacent marsh areas as well. The Lake was only a few hundred feet from this location.

When I lived at Lake Tahoe, this area was one of our favorite areas for hiking and walking my favorite dog, Robin. It's one of those areas that has a "familiar look", reminding a number of people who saw this particular painting of other areas that they've hiked through, camped in or actually lived in. An alternate title I considered for this piece was "Road to Paradise".

I still have many fond memories of this area, which we considered one of the finest at Lake Tahoe. It was off the main road around the Lake, and is largely an area known and utilized primarily by the locals who reside on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. Left unplowed, gate locked in winter snows....it was the perfect spot in spring and summertime.

Great area for wandering around in the forest by the Lake! (...guess it would not have been too "fun" to run into one of the bears that also like these woods. Luckily, we never did.).

"California Desert Spring" was one of a series of large paintings I did for the southern California art market/gallery scene, where large paintings were basically what was called for to accomodate the large condominiums, houses and various office buildings that were in that region (i.e., Palm Desert, Palm Springs area).

Unfortunately, much of this open desert terrain has since been developed by large golf courses and various housing developments which make scenes like this a rarity in that area. The purplish flowered plant is called desert verbena, the white flower plant is a form of desert lily, as I recall. Both plants native to the region.

Both these flowering plants varied in intensity from year to year as determined by the fall and winter rainfall amounts. Years with low rainfall had only a light sprinkling of these attractive plants doted across the open desert. These plants are native to the area, and will not grow well in disturbed or developed areas.

[Since my southern California Desert Series finished long ago, I don't mind saying now that virtually all of the paintings I did in this series had some form of discarded trash (styrofoam cups, cigarette packs, aluminum cans, plastic bags, etc.) somewhere in the scene which I had to remove to get a "clean" view of painting locations. Old mattresses, broken furniture, worn out tires, even discarded clothing were amongst the items littering these "scenic" areas. Over a fifteen year period, I saw enough beat-up, old, dirty abandoned couches to fill a huge warehouse! No one apparently the least concerned about any of it, as these dismal piles of crap sat there, baking in the hot desert sun, year after year.

Many people don't realize that the desert has long been used for at least seventy-five years as a general DUMP for people seeking to avoid the cost and inconvenience of designated dump sites. They drive out to remote, isolated areas and dump all manner of garbage (often entire truck loads) into the open desert where strong winds blew everything often miles from the original "dump" site. Much to my great annoyance, I always had to pick up and remove this garbage before starting a painting. (Only rarely did I have to do this in other areas of California where I painted outside on location).

Most of it, of course, had blown in (or was dumped off) from some other location due to the often excessive wind in that region. Intentional, deliberate (and illegal) dumping clearly emphasized the fact that it's impossible to have over TWENTY-THREE MILLION people (you read it correctly, 23 MILLION, according to recent census reports) living in southern California without seeing the evidence of their presence practically everywhere, even in areas that were considered off the beaten path, undeveloped and wild... a sad commentary on what is basically non-existant long-term regional planning, over-development and over-population that seriously and permanently blight southern California].

"Mountain Garden" was the largest of a series I did in a friend's mountain garden in southern California. All the paintings sold within a month. The garden consisted of a wide variety of iris. This particular year had a late freeze which caused most of the iris to be damaged, so they were trimmed back to the sword-like leaves which half this painting consists of.

It was still an attractive subject to paint, and I took it as a challenge to make what I could of the limited flowers that did survive the frost.

"High Desert Escape" was another of these very large canvases I painted in the southern California area. This road was located within a few hundred feet of a small cabin I rented (out of view, at the right of this road). Hot, dry and decidely desolate, I managed to live here for about two years, and it became my studio and home base while I painted these large canvases for the Palm Desert galleries representing me at that time.

Eventually, the economy experienced one of its periodic recessions. Three quarters (the majority) of the desert art galleries, large and small, went bankrupt and "disappeared like magic" or had reduced sales (such as the one I was with at that time). It took more than two long years for the desert art galleries to recover from this particularly brutal recession.

Aside from that, this high desert location (Joshua Tree) gradually became less appealing as I disliked the predominantly hot temperatures and insects (scorpions, centipedes, trillions of ants...in three different sizes, huge roaches, rattlesnakes, etc.) which were native to this area. In retrospect, it was a tremendously valued and certainly unique experience I wouldn't trade for anything.

The mountains, much more lush and inviting, cooler, with all four seasons, instead of two in the desert (spring and summer) once again became my studio and home base where I continued to paint very large desert canvases.

This particular painting was sold within a short time of front window gallery display.

"Afternoon by Lake Tahoe" was one of series of paintings I did while living in the Lake Tahoe area. Endless amounts of inspiring vistas in which to paint, I was always on the lookout for scenes which stood out as more unique from the many other paintings artists were and are doing of this magnificent region of California/Nevada.

This tranquil scene was done on the west shore of the Lake in late afternoon light during mid-Spring, looking towards the distant mountain range where the shoreline community of South Lake Tahoe is located.

"Desert Riches", another large painting in my Desert Series, was the FIRST in this series and sold the same day I delivered it to the gallery (believe it or not)! I delivered the painting to the gallery in the morning, and by the time I arrived back home an hour later, a phone message from the art gallery owner indicated it had been sold already. Remarkable since it was the very first large painting I had done in my life.

The painting shows a typical, warm, breezy afternoon in springtime when (this particular year in 1986 or 1987) the flowering purple verbena plants had a carpet-like appearance in the low desert (i.e., Palm Springs, Palm Desert area). Wet winters in the desert allowed these bursts of flowering. It varied from year to year, depending on how much rain fell.

This painting was also popular on an early website I had, a few people wanted it, but it was sold almost immediately, and copies weren't an appealing option. Not surprisingly, more than a few other desert artists at the time, tried to imitate this "look" in an attempt to cash in on my success which soon rippled through the gallery scene of the time.

What was really amazing (even to me) was that I had no previous gallery experience. I was a "new-comer", who's first large painting sold the first day it was displayed. Of course I had been painting as a hobby for about fourteen years prior to this, but no one knew that.

I had come from "nowhere" to front window display priviledges seemingly overnight. And in the big art galleries of El Paseo Avenue in Palm Desert, front window display was as good as it got for an artist, since it gave twenty-four hour exclusivity to the optimum display space from huge glass windows overlooking sidewalks and avenue. Night-time gallery spotlights added a whole new appeal for those people driving by or walking around in the evening. It was a winning combination that worked great and was virtually impossible to beat.

Basically, the "look" I attained for this canvas was fairly simple. I simply looked out across the desert, and lowered my viewpoint about two feet, which created a sort of visual feeling of zooming out across the desert at a low level. Just an experiment on my part, it succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

I tried a similar approach with three or four additional desert scenes, and all sold within a few days of delivery to the gallery. Such is the power of spatial depiction in a composition. It solidified my position within the Palm Desert California gallery scene, though the economic recession of the late 80's quickly put the damper on the entire art gallery community, with a closure of roughly eighteen (18) out of twenty-three (23) art galleries. Pretty rough!

After that grim period (which seemed to linger for about two years), I rapidly lost interest in the desert in general and desert paintings in particular, as it became very obvious that it was a fragile gallery community formatted around a five or six month "season" and unusually vulnerable to economic problems. More so than one might expect. More importantly, however, was an increasing awareness that due to the long-lasting, unpleasantly hot desert temperatures (five to six months), foot traffic to the various stores dwindled to near nothing in August and September (and everyone there knew that all too well...even the "die-hards").

Many galleries simply locked the doors, shut off the lights, turned on the security alarm, placed the "RE-OPEN AGAIN IN OCTOBER" sign on the front door, and went on vacation during those months...ridiculous, certainly pathetic and highly inadvisable for an art community that seeks to portray even a hint of continuity and stability.

As the recession slowly lifted, golf course builders descended on the area and shifted emphasis from a quieter, more artistic feeling to a more industrious and bustling golfing community, with numerous huge new golf courses replacing the natural, untouched beauty of the desert. While this exclusive desert art gallery industry eventually recovered, it's a pale comparison of what it was in the 1980's, and has never regained the status it had during those years as new galleries continue to move in and move out seeking a stability that will never happen in that area of southern California.

Sadly, this trend towards golf course construction continued unabated for the next five or six years, until scenes like my painting, "Desert Riches", were largely a memory of what once was seen all around that area, but was no longer so easily found.

"Lake Tahoe Overlook" is another painting I did in my first Lake Tahoe series. A classic viewpoint looking over a portion of Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe from a rocky outcrop above Emerald Bay, on a beautiful late afternoon in the summertime.

"Desert Afternoon", another in my desert series, was quite large to satisfy the "big painting" demands of many of the Palm Desert and Palm Springs galleries. Aside from the wealthy patrons of these galleries, a high percentage of these art patrons had very large desert homes or condominiums where even these large paintings often looked liked postage stamps on the walls.

This painting, like some of my other large paintings, sold within a few weeks of gallery display. This particular scene was a huge, expansive area which was actually a natural drainage (called a "flood plain") for the nearby Santa Rosa Mountains occasional flooding rains which hit this region periodically. It was across the street from where my parents lived and where we would take the dog for walks.

Much to our horror, this entire area was eventually bulldozed flat by a notable golf course developer. It is now the "Bighorn Golf Course" where huge, televised golf tournaments take place in the fall and winter months, complete with huge blimps (zepplin-like airships) giving aerial play by play film coverage of the events below.

Oh well....it could just have easily been turned into a gigantic parking lot, I suppose. In fact, a large part of it actually was to accomodate all the vehicles (buses included) that would need to park at this "facility".

"High Desert Patterns", another in my desert series, refers to the "high elevation" of the desert region adjacent to the low desert (Palm Springs, Palm Desert, California). If memory serves me correctly, elevations above 1500 feet above sea level in this region are considered high desert.

I lived here (in the Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree area) for about six years total. Roughly ten degrees cooler than the low desert, it was a much more pleasant temperature in my opinion, though still very hot in the summer months (above 100 degrees). This particular scene shown in the painting was about two hundred yards from where I lived.

I was always struck by the bizarre, rather abstract clouds that often drifted through this area, and this painting was largely inspired by this. The large cactus-like plant in the right foreground was a yucca plant. A native of the high desert, it has a stark beauty that contrasted nicely with the clouds and shadows cast by the plants in late afternoon. These interesting plants were once much more common here, but "plant poachers" have illegally removed a large percentage of these exotic native plants, transplanting (and selling) them for various landscaping projects around the general southern California region.

[On a side-note, I was troubled to hear that areas of JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL MONUMENT have had to be closed off from the public due to "excessive graffitti". When I lived just outside the entrance to this unique, even magical park in the late 80's, they were not yet charging entrance fees, so I enjoyed a few years of extensive hiking and exploration of this unique area before this recent ( though not surprising) decline developed. Many areas of SoCal have horrendous problems with graffitti, which only adds to the run-down, shabby appearance of that already beleagured region).

Even when I moved back to the nearby mountains, graffitti was already a problem (back in the 1990's). So much so that a volunteer group, equipped with machinery and tools, would respond to reports of graffitti and attempt to remove it, while offering rewards for turning in the culprits.

Unfortunately, the tremendous gang problem in the SoCal region in general and specifically in the lower (Indio to Palm Springs, Coachella Valley area) has grown so extensively that this great park (J.T. Monument) now has to suffer the effects of gangs marking off there turf with spray paint graffitti on the rocks in the park areas.

Park visitors will now be deprived of enjoying what, without doubt, is certainly one of the most outstanding, unique geologic areas of the Sonoran desert. Then there's the wildfires which popped up with alarming frequency in southern California...often arson related. But THAT'S another story, entirely].

"Desert Palms" (another large painting from my Desert Series) was another attempt to break away from the "ordinary" expectations and try something new. When I looked around at the Palm Springs-Palm Desert area, one of the primary and obvious things I noticed was the prevalence of these tall palm trees everywhere I looked.

Planted primarily as landscaping by the area gardeners, these palms were the most obvious tree in the desert, since the horrendous summer heat would simply kill most other trees. There were a few other types of native trees doting the area, and even a type of pine tree which was able to withstand high temperatures. But the palms trees were the tallest and most noticeable and were growing naturally in areas with water.

Due to the often hurricane-force winds that would whip through the desert there, the gardeners would simply strip off the old husks of the palm frongs (which would otherwise blow off into the streets creating hazardous conditions for drivers), unfortunately, this gave the palms a rather ridiculous, "telephone pole" look. But they were one of the very few trees able to survive this harsh region, so they were utilized to the extreme by nearly everyone all through the southern California desert communities.

Despite the rather vibrant blue which dominated this painting, someone spotted it in the gallery front window and promptly bought it. It was on display around two weeks before purchase, which wasn't too bad, considering it had a $4000.00 selling price. Large paintings brought large prices, and fortunately my gallery preferred selling large size paintings.

Once again, when word got around that this particular painting had sold, four or five other desert artists tried to cash in on my idea by painting suspiciously similar paintings. A "good idea" is a good idea for anyone, I suppose. I just thought it would make a fun and typically "desert" image, from my personal observation, at any rate.

If you click on the enlarged view of this painting (lower right-hand corner of image), you will notice in the upper right-hand quadrant, the moon, which added to the surrealistic vision of this scene.

"Mountain Aspens, II" was the second aspen tree painting I did after moving to Lake Tahoe. Situated in a high mountain valley, this area usually had a ranchers horses wandering amidst the trees.

A smaller aspen painting which preceeded this canvas, sold within a few days of gallery display, and in the shuffle, managed to escape being photographed.

"High Desert Afternoon" (another in my large-scale Desert Series) was a scene taken of what was termed a desert arroyo, or rainfall run-off area. It was situated a few hundred feet from my desert studio of the time.

Again, as in a few earlier desert compositions I did, I stood in the arroyo and simply hunched down a foot or so, until the compositional balance seemed most appealing to me. As with a few earlier paintings, this painting sold within a few days of gallery display.

The distant mountain range on the horizon was actually the top portion of San Gorgonio Mountain and the San Bernardino Mountain range, as I recall. The so-called "high desert" is a couple thousand feet higher than the low desert where Palm Springs and the other Coachella Valley cities are located. This, plus the angle of the land where this scene was painted, allowed just the top of 10,000 ft. high San Gorgonio Mtn. to be seen! A rather bizarre fact I found fascinating for a desert composition.

As this large 50 inch by 68 inch painting was primarily painted on location, I had to contend with gusty winds buffeting the canvas from time to time, like a sail on a boat. I returned to this location over six times to complete the painting enough for finishing touch-ups done in my studio. In my Desert Series, this particular painting ranks high on the list of personal favorites.

As an indication of how out-of-sync being an artist can get, the following little story shows it quite clearly! During my four or five years displaying and selling my paintings in the Palm Desert area, I finished and brought in a landscape and was showing it to the gallery owner. She suddenly asked me, "What is that brown haze on the horizon?" I said it was smog (air pollution).

She said, "I can't exhibit that painting in here unless you get rid of that brown haze". I said it was integral to the overall lighting of the scene and shows what I saw as I painted it. She said, "No one will buy that picture with that smog in it". I brought it home and chose a rare, clearer day and repainted the sky.

This was one of the first indicators when I realized...without a doubt, that I was not going to be willing to paint desert and/or southern California scenery any longer. As I soon discovered, even the desert gets smog, usually blown in from the Los Angeles basin where it hangs low on the horizon. I wasn't very approving of the area to begin with, and this was basically the final straw.

Having to alter my observations and working methods (painting only on rare, smog-free days) to account for the horrendous air pollution of southern California seemed just plain WRONG! The facts also indicated that hot weather KILLS more people than ALL other natural phenomenon combined (tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, etc).

I could easily believe it, after the hundreds of terribly HOT days I endured in SoCal. Roughly twenty degrees hotter, on average, than anywhere I had ever lived. The heat, combined with the horrendous smog and my allergy, made for an EASY decision to permanently leave that area before my overall health suffered serious damage. It wasn't long after this that I stopped painting the southern California landscape altogether...never to return.

"Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe", another in my Lake Tahoe Series, was one of the more unusual features of the Lake; a large bay tucked into a side of the Lake with a small island in the middle.

Of course, this island had a small tea-house built on it sometime in the 1920's by some wealthy resident who had also built an amazing castle-like home on the shore of the bay within rowing distance of this small island. Nowadays, owned by the National Park Service who opens the house for tours.

Boaters on the Lake often stop by this island, as well. As for me, I was perched high on some rocky cliffs where some huge, weather-beaten trees framed the island in a composition that I found appealing for a painting.

"Afternoon Walk, Lake Tahoe" from my Lake Tahoe Series was a composition taken from a great area we used to hike in close to the shore on the west side of the Lake, consisting of old roads and intertwined hiking trails. A young couple from out of state, visiting Lake Tahoe, found this painting highly reminiscent of areas on the Pacific Crest Trail they had hiked, and promptly bought it.

This painting was the inspiration for the largest painting I did of Lake Tahoe (shown above), "Emerald Forest".

"High Desert Color", another in my Desert Series, was a dyptych (two panel) painting. I was once again trying something different that might catch the eye of an art buyer. It worked. After a short gallery display period in the large front window of the gallery, this painting found a buyer (...and I went on a big shopping spree).

The scene depicted the top peaks of San Gorgonio Mountain (the highest mountain in southern California). From my viewpoint in the Joshua Tree area of the high desert (about forty minutes from Palm Springs) this was the view from one of the hundreds of normally dry desert "washes", or arroyos criss-crossing the desert.

My studio at the time was a short five minute walk from this scene, so it was quite convenient. One thing I noticed almost immediately when I entered the Palm Springs-Palm Desert galleries was the predominance of largely low desert paintings. This made sense since most art buyers were living in, vacationing in or otherwise familiar with that area or simply were familiar with those types of scenes due to many years of pictorial promotions for the Palm Springs area.

I could see immediately that from the standpoint of a "newcomer" artist, it would be nearly pointless to try and compete with these well-established low desert artists, though many were second-rate, hobbyist painters who painted largely for retirement activities. Name recognition features strongly in the artistic circles, and it's not always based on high quality work but more on who can persist the longest.

I was out to make an impression and get established soon as possible so I decided that the wide open vistas in the largely ignored high desert areas were unique in there own way. Plus, I lived there for the time being so I was much more familiar with that area.

Luckily, my hunch was correct. The gallery liked my paintings and continued to give me premium display priviledges (i.e., the large front windows of the gallery) and there apparently was enough high desert painting buyers that I sold rather well until the economic depression of the late 80's, when "all things art" tapered off dramatically for the desert art galleries for the next two or three years, as most of the art galleries closed there doors permanently, going out of business, down-sizing or moving out of the desert area altogether and relocating elsewhere (when possible).

A slow, painful recovery period lasting about three years, brought some of them back again. Over half of the art galleries went out of business, and never returned. I was witness to it. The primary drawback to the Palm Springs-Palm Desert art gallery situation (as many new galleries discovered) is the seasonality of the region.

A short, five or six month period (when temps were somewhat cooler) in Fall and Winter determinded whether an art gallery could remain in business the rest of the year when extreme hot temps dramatically reduced foot traffic...and art buyers. Despite creative attempts of all sorts, it was, and will ALWAYS be a strictly "secondary art market" (despite what they would like to portray to the public) due to this one deadly factor; distressingly hot temperatures being so disagreeable to so many people. I witnessed it first hand, unfortunately. It was nothing to take lightly.

When my allergy doctor recommended cortizone injections to tame my crippling allergies (from desert pollen and mold spores), I researched what affect it might have. Cortizone, among other things, tends to damage delicate eye tissue. That was the final straw for me in southern California. Risking eye damage in order to deal with my allergies was unacceptable.

Fortunately, I truly disliked the deadly serious air pollution (smog) and congested living conditions in southern Cal (regardless of my allergies), so moving back to beautiful Northern California where I had grown up was a VERY welcome "remedy" which helped GREATLY with my mental and physical condition! Sheesh!

Postscript: Many years after I had left southern California, a nationwide "allergy severity report" I read indicated that the southern California region (considered to be in the "Southwest") is in the top three areas of the United States that are the very WORST for pollen allergy sufferers. My assumptions became factual. My decision to move out of that region was now validated and I felt somehow relieved, in more ways than one!

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