TAMARISK TREE

    You can look up this tree's history if you want, another spelling is Tamarix. I think it goes back to biblical times, a very fast grower (considered an epidemic in some places).  It's one of the bushes down in the riverbed and this one is about 175 yards from the spot I hit my golf balls from. Right now the county is thinking since we've had some wildfires lately, that when the monsoon hit in a few months, there will be more flooding than usual because of the added run off. They now have big tank looking backhoes digging all these Tamarisk up...for what reason I don't know. Someone said they are going to re-route the river. I've seen the floods hit here and they just sweep these trees right up and carry them away; along with a few small culvert bridges and a few RV trailers that are parked too close to the river. It will be interesting to see what happens when the flood hit.

SAGUARO PURPLE MTN

     This is the view across the road from my studio. It seems I'm painting a lot here at home. It's because it's handy and it's going to get too hot, soon. It was in the 90s by the time I was done today.
     I've also been excited about finding out that my Standard (12x16) Palette will fit into a medium size back pack (Kelty Redwing 50)! All I could find before were those huge Mt. Everest expedition types. This one is great, it only weighs less than 20 lbs. with all my essential painting equipment and has plenty of compartments for extra stuff (like the kitchen sink). It comes in s/m or m/l and has a waist adjustment strap to balance it on my hips.
     Here's a photo of it with my palette and wet panel box still inside.

     Here I am in the shade with one of m dogs, Jack. I'm using my 12x16 palette to paint that little 6x6 and I'm using the left wing to mix my sky colors. I love extra paint mixing room, that's one of the reason's I invented my Coulter Plein Air System.  (artboxandpanel.com)

MAKING A NEW START

     I got start late this morning, so it was already getting hot. I found a shady spot and then looked for something to paint. I really felt motivated to slap some paint around today.
     This tree is growing in a location that will shade my studio some day. I spotted this one when he was about 3' tall down in the desert riverbed. I went down after a big rain thinking that the ground would be soft and easy to dig up. In the process, I fell into some quicksand. It wasn't life threatening, but I was covered in mud and sand before I got the tree dug up. I had to ask for my neighbor to come down with his ATV to haul it back up to my yard. When he answered my knock at his door he start laughing at the mud man standing there. We got it back up and I got it back into the ground. We got a freak freeze a couple days later, and all the leaves fell off. I figured it was dead. A few months later I noticed a couple little leave coming back out again. Almost a year later it's about 8' tall.

DESERT MORNING

 
 This is the same Palo Verde tree, only from a different angle and in the morning instead of late afternoon. This is an 8x10.

PALO and the BARREL

    I strapped on my painting back pack and was heading down to the riverbed again, when I saw this Palo Verde tree with a little Barrel Cactus in my front yard. There was also a nice shade tree to sit under. The dogs were a little disappointed at first, as they thought we were in for a long hike. They soon adjusted to the situation and Lexi actually went back in under the air conditioner and watch me paint.

RIVERBED ROCKS

     It's starting to warm up here in Arizona now. It's not HOT yet, only in the 90s. Won't be hot until it gets into the 110s and above, 100 at night. This scene is the same one I painted recently. I didn't like the other one, so I went back and re-did it. I actually physically trimmed that little bush in front of the rock formation. I could have just painted in shorter, but I decided it needed trimmed. I have a golf driving range down in this river bed and have to trim it with a weed eater in order to find my golf balls. The neighbors think I'm crazy down there doing yard work in the desert river bed.

SAGUARO HILL

     Here I am again down in the dried up river bed below my studio. We have had a drought this past year, so there has been no water running all year. Usually we have a flood or two. Last year we had a 50 year flood and it washed away a bunch of trailers at a RV park located on the river's edge. It peaked at 35 feet down where it washed out a bridge. I went down to look at it and my silly dog Jack jumped in and swam across this raging flood water about 100 yards wide; Then he had to turn around and swim back. He thought he was pretty cool, I didn't. He's done something like that with a couple rattlesnakes and found out he wasn't as fast as he thought. I had to pay the Vet bill of course.