How did Joshua Trees get their name?

 People who settled in the area during the period of western expansion named them that because their branches reminded them of the biblical Joshua raising his hands towards the heavens.

I learned that as a child because we used to go camping in the desert a lot, and the rangers would have educational walks where they would lead us on a little hike and tell us stories about the history, plants and animals of the desert.

When I grew up, I spent three years living in a very isolated part of the Mojave desert, and I did a lot of paintings there. This is one of them! The original is acrylic on canvas, and you can see the brush strokes.

pop art desert sunset joshua tree art magnet
by MelskyArt

Spiral Sky Cactus

I'm on a roll here. Like the last one, this is an 8x10 watercolor and ink with metallic acrylic accents. I was experimenting with watercolor washes. I used some salt to give a crystallized effect in the sky but I didn't like it so mostly painted over it.

I ordered some new watercolors and will be experimenting with blocking - where you block out an area which is already painted so it doesn't absorb more paint. When I was painting this one, I wished I had some of that to paint over the cactus so I could have done more of a wash effect in the sky. I had wanted it to be in dawn colors and I had gotten an effect I liked but because I was constrained painting around the cactus it got messed up and I just went ahead and did a lot of purple spirals.

A lot of times when I mess things up I paint spiral patterns over it! But don't tell anyone.

Mojave Desert Christmas Card

Mojave Desert Christmas Card, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is a painting I did for a Christmas Card contest. You can order cards with it and I also have the original available on Etsy:

Mojave Desert Christmas Painting

I did a lot of other artwork today but my scanner is not working all of the sudden so I'll have to put it up tomorrow.

Make a MOO Greetings Card with this image and help raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières

You'll be taken straight to a page on MOO with my image selected, ready for you to customise and buy.

Find out more about MOO Greetings Cards

Sunny Day In The Mojave

Joshua Tree Sun, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Another desert painting. I wonder sometimes if I ever moved back to the desert if I would paint a bunch of stuff inspired by Toronto and Syracuse. I've noticed that when I leave a place or a time in my life that I dream about it. For a long time my dreams were set at my grandmother's house in La Mesa, California. There was almost always something bad happening in the dream, the house was on fire or people were breaking in. In one memorable dream Bruce Springsteen was breaking in through the laundry room!

I didn't dream about San Francisco much until I left it. I dream about the desert surprisingly little for all the impact it has had on me artistically. Now I have started to have some dreams about Toronto. It's like I'm filing things away and sorting them out since I am no longer there.

It's been a lovely fall day today. I went on a long walk and took some photos of leaves and stuff. There is enough fuel for the artist's imagination here. I love fall colors and old buildings.

Anyway, here's a link to today's painting: A Sunny Day in the Mojave with Joshua Tree

Bright Joshua Tree
Originally uploaded by Melsky

Today it snowed for the first time this season. I took a walk to the dollar store and enjoyed it a lot. No sweat today!

I did spend some time in my cozy warm studio painting a picture of the desert though. I love how this one came out, it's so bright and happy.

Joshua Tree Painting on Etsy

Joshua Tree Sunset

Joshua Tree Sunset, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I have been neglecting this blog but I've decided to post every day for the month of November. I'm putting new art in the Melsky Art Store on Etsy every day, and I've decided to post about it every day too.

This was inspired by NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. That's a thing where people pledge to write a novel every month. That has been very popular, and spawned several spinoffs, like a thing called Art By The Inch where you pledge to paint a certain amount of square inches every day, and a thing called NaNoBloWriMo where you write in your blog every day. So I thought I would make one of my own where I put art on Etsy every day and then blog about it.

So my pledge is to put art up on Etsy every day, to write about it in my blog, and if I happen to miss a day to make it up and not just abandon the project.

My cat Oliver has pledged to help me by being my muse and mascot for the project.

So here is my entry for the first of November, All Saints Day:

Joshua Tree Sunset

I'm on a desert painting kick again. This one is in quite the 70s colors, don't you think? I spent a lot of time in the desert in the 70s as a child.

This is me, on Saturday, all sweaty with messy hair but it's a good photo. I'm starting to lose more weight in my face.

I'm really enjoying the whole weight loss/working out in the gym thing. I love watching fat disappear from various parts of my body and get replaced by muscle.

The photo was taken on a bridge over the Don River. We went on a very long walk, from our house to Riverdale. It was about 13 kilometers. Then we had steaks at the Tulip, a Toronto institution, one of those restaurants that's been there forever. Dave thought the gravy was salty and I was surprised to see

I've gotten a commission for a painting, based on this painting, Saguaro Margarita. The original of the painting is 9x12, and this version is going to be 30x40! It's going to Arizona where it will hang in a bar. I'm excited to have such a large commission. Tomorrow I go to Tern Art Supplies and get the canvas. The people saw it on my Wonder Valley Desert page.

It's starting to get hot here. I put in the air conditioner a week ago and we used it for the first time tonight. Or rather Dave used it. I've gotten much more resilient to temperatures.

Cactus and the library

It's 8x10 on canvas, price $35.00.

Available at Melsky Art Store

Now I'm off to the library. One of the things I love about Toronto is it has a great public library system. You can search for books online and order them and they will ship them to the library of your choice.

Raining, complaining

It started out hot today, then clouded over, cooled off and the wind picked up. Lovely coolness! Then the rain started, then the thunder and lightning. Now the storm seems pretty much over and it's starting to get hot and sticky again. So why does my cat have to want to cuddle now? Oliver is acting like it's a cold day or something.

Whenever I pet either one of them they give off a snowstorm of hair despite the fact that I brush them every day. I'm not a big summer or warm weather person.

I updated my Wonder Valley site again - yesterday's update just didn't cut it. I added more photos and changed the background color, and put in some more links. I did some really beautiful paintings when I was in the desert, when I went to add more of them to the site I was surprised how nice they were. I may have them printed up into cards.


I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow at 9:30. Right now it looks like an acrylic dust mop that someone set on fire and quickly put out. Photo not available!

I sold a painting!

I sold a painting in my Etsy store - this one of sunflowers. It is a painting I started in 2004 in Los Angeles. I started painting an abstract background, and then I was going to paint on top of that, sort of the style of painting where I doodle and paint flowers and stuff for an abstract floral. But the colors got all muddy, and I stopped working on the painting for a while. I brought it up here with me and decided to let the blue green background serve as a kind of a frame. So I painted a white rectangle in the center and used that part as my canvas to paint a new painting of sunflowers in a clear glass vase.



I'm so happy to have sold a painting. It's going all the way to England.

In other news, I have updated my Wonder Valley Desert Site. I used to live in a very isolated part of the Mojave Desert before I moved to Toronto. I did the site while I was still living there, and hadn't updated it.

It's hard to imagine living in the desert now. When I lived in the desert it was hard to imagine moving here!

This was the view from my old house: