The Mohawk In Progress

Cactus with a Mohawk Too
24" x 18" on Mi-Teintes paper
In Progress

Cactus with a Mohawk has proven to be a favorite, and I sold the original several years ago. I am working on another cactus with a mohawk, and no two paintings are alike, but this one has the potential to be just as popular as the original mohawk. I'm still working on a few details but it's getting close.

Running out of fixative mid-painting was a challenge today.

A productive day

Today I finished Cactus! and framed it. It's in a black frame and looks nice. I also finished a piece on velour paper (messy!) called Delicate and it's a painting of Delicate Arch in Utah.

DOT COM

Today I registered the domain name alenepastels.com. Now I'm on my way to building a real website. Progress in small steps. I did make progress on designing a business card and a few other things. No painting this week, too busy at work and getting things in order around the house. We've had a rash of things breaking or not working lately, I'm trying to get everything back in working condition or spending time on the phone with technical support in various parts of the globe, which is never a quick process.

I plan to work my way through the website design and setup over the summer. That will give me time to paint.

Cactus!

CACTUS!
25 x 19 on LaCarte Paper

Today I felt like doing a Cactus! With the exclamation point... I want someone to walk into the room and the first thing they notice is CACTUS!

Turquoise Cactus

Needs some stars, or a moon, or something. Not sure yet.

Turquoise Cactus

18x12 on Mi-Teintes Paper

More Cactus

Here are some of my cactus series. Most are older, especially the last few shown, and back then the photo quality was poor, so they don't show up clearly on the blog.


Little Green Cactus

Leaning Cactus

Moon and Cactus

Good Morning Cactus

Spike

Ike

Stars and Spikes

Sunset Cactus

Green Spikes

Neon Spikes

Cactus Moon

More Sonoran Desert Works

These are some of my older paintings. Some of the photographs are poor quality and don't show up clearly here. But this is what my early work looked like.


Catalina





Cactus Afternoon





Beeline Sunset






Ablaze

Red Spikes
18 x 12 on velour paper

Running

One Twenty in the Shade
24 x 18 on Mi-Teintes Paper

In 2002 I crewed for a friend at Badwater, a run across Death Valley in the middle of summer. The landscape is awesome. My poor figure drawing skills ironically make this realistic, he looks like he's staggering across the road, and he really was.

Ophir Pass
8 x 10 on Wallis paper

I'm not the best at drawing figures. Every so often I feel like drawing runners. It usually doesn't work very well, the landscape turns out good but the runners look silly. It's always good for a laugh.

Red Spikes (In Progress)

18 x 12 on velour paper

Today I decided to break out the pastels and play. I don't know why this cactus occurred to me but it did. I thought I'd start with something simple. I'm not done yet, I need to remove some of the red thorns on the cactus, they make it too busy.

Older Works

Wheelbarrow
9 x 9 on Mi Teintes paper




Storm over Paintbrush
24 x 18 on Mi Teintes paper



Peach on the Dashboard

18 x 12 on Mi Teintes paper

available on canvas or print

Blazing Desert
private collection
10 x 8 on sanded paper





Autumn Passes
8 x 18 on Mi Teintes paper





Winter at Madera Canyon
12 x 18 on Mi Teintes paper








Cactus with a Mohawk




24 x 18 on Mi-Teintes paper

















Antonito Station





18 x 12 on Mi Teintes paper





available on canvas or print











Century





18 x 12 on Mi Teintes paper












Convent Gate

6 x 16 on Wallis Paper

Old Adobe

10 x 10 on sanded paper

Things Looking Up
18 x 12 on Mi-Teintes paper


Relics
12 x 15 on Mi Teintes paper