Petroglyph Ironwood

For a larger image, click on picture.

I managed to put the finishing touches on this piece this am. This piece was walk through memory lane as I have painted this scene before. This was a piece that was purchased for The Sonoran Desert Museums permanent collection. The piece they purchased was done in acrylics and this one is done in oils. A very different feel to this piece and more truthful to the location.

A friend of mine picked out a piece for purchase and then decided that he wanted to have two paintings. The second piece he picked out was this painting which was already sold. I couldn't have it work out to sell something from my already painted stock that is growing out of control. I retained the rights to the painting in the event I wanted to do a printing of the piece someday. My hope has been that after they get the collection of painting published that it would possibly have appeal for that. Might be a pipe dream. Anyhow, with owning the rights, I can paint a piece for his home.

This scene is from the Petroglyph trail in the Superstition Mountains here in Arizona. A group of us hiked up the trail to catch the sunrise and meditate next to the petroglyphs in the canyon they are located in. On the way up to the location, this ironwood tree caught my attention because of the interesting burl growth in the midsection of the tree. When I got home and developed the pictures, I noticed that the burl had the resemblance of a dragon head. I didn't paint the piece for a long time because I thought it might be a little too Bev Doolittleish. Oh well, I wasn't adding in something into the paiece that wasn't there.

The ironwood tree is an amazing speciman. It is a nurse species for over 650 plants and animals. A real central plant in out Sonoran Desert. They can reach ages of near 2,000 years old. With all of the urban sprawl, developers would go in and level the ground for homes and began destroying these magnificent trees on a grand scale. Congress finally passed a bill to make them an endangered species several years ago. A major milestone in desert conservation.