Tiny Desert Treasures

a tiny creature, hidden in plain sight!

"Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small.

We haven't time, and to see takes time -- like to have a friend takes time."

- Georgia O'Keefe

We all notice the big, bold, showy displays of nature, like the Grand Canyon or the Milky Way galaxy or Niagara Falls.

But the smallest things are just as miraculous and awe-inspiring. 

Most of the time we don't notice the daisy growing out of the sidewalk crack, the ladybug underneath the leaf, or the little spider spinning her web in a dark and forgotten corner of the house.

But if we took the time to see, we'd realize our world is teeming with treasures, just waiting for us to notice them.

Do you see the tiny frog in the photo above? (I apologize for the poor photos, they were taken with my camera phone.) Maybe you'll see it in the photo below.

He is perfectly camouflaged among the dirt and rocks, and he was sitting perfectly still! Look just above my thumb.

This is a little desert frog! One of the frogs who lives in the desert pond, who was jumping about after the monsoon rainstorm.

Here's a tiny clump of blue wildflowers on the hiking trail.

I have always loved tiny things! When you see them, it's like you found a hidden treasure!

And here's a really tiny little flower (sorry it's blurry! I need to remember to bring my real camera next time!)


After I saw these wildflowers at North Mountain Park this spring, I went to the Visitor's Center. The volunteer there was complaining loudly that "nothing is blooming this year!" 

But when I showed her my photos of tiny wildflowers she didn't say anything else. 

The most lovely and exquisite treasures are sometimes hidden in plain sight. 

The observant person will find them.

Teen Drawing Class @ Revival Art Collective featured in The Downtown Devil

I'm teaching a drawing class for teens at Revival Art Collective in Phoenix, Arizona. It made the news!

Arizona State University's student news agency, The Downtown Devil, followed my class and did a feature article on Revival Art Collective and my wonderful students.

Click here to read the article.

2014 Art Classes in Phoenix, Arizona

 rose

pencil drawing by Rosa Phoenix

I'm teaching drawing and painting classes in Phoenix, Arizona. 

I'll be teaching a kids class at Revival Art Collective: Drawing for Teens. This class begins on February 1. Register before January 18, take 20% off the class. Use discount code: EARLY.

Register here: www.tinyurl.com/teen-art-RAC

For my full class schedule, please visit my website: www.rosaphoenix.com and click on Classes. 

Please contact me if you have any questions. 

It's a new year, a blank canvas we can paint however we like!

Let's make it beautiful!

Coyotes Sketch

coyotes

sketch by Rosa Phoenix

On my hike today I saw, and heard, many coyotes. They were singing, howling and barking in the desert mountains at sunset.

Their song has a haunting and eerie sound. If you've ever heard them, you know what I mean!

Earlier this year I made a sketch from my memory of three coyotes singing.

Where I live in Phoenix, Arizona, there are many nature preserves with hiking trails, where you can see beautiful plants and animals of the desert.

 

Fall and Winter Classes in Phoenix, Arizona, 2013

 Chili Peppers

Watercolor pencil on paper

by Rosa Phoenix

I've enjoyed beautiful summer in San Francisco this year, and I'll be heading back to Phoenix, Arizona soon for the winter.

I've posted my upcoming classes and events on my website.

You can see it by going to www.rosaphoenix.com and clicking on Classes.

I'll update this as I add more events, so please check back for the latest schedule.

Future Vision

sketchbook page

pen and ink sketch 

by Rosa Phoenix

"I keep having this vision, where I am walking out into the desert."

This is a page from my sketchbook, one month before I moved to Arizona, in 2011.

At the time, it was vision into the future. This vision is now my reality.

It's interesting to look back at past sketchbooks, and see records of my thoughts, dreams and things that I was seeing at that time in my life.

Blue Corn

Elote

pen and ink drawing

by Rosa Phoenix

The Hopi people have a story, that when all the races of people were created, each were allowed to choose their own food. The Hopi waited until the end, to make their choice, and chose the smallest ear of corn. The Creator told them that they had chosen wisely, for they had chosen the "true food." 

The Hopi still plant and grow corn on their land in Arizona today. The blue corn they cultivate is more nutritious than other varieties of corn.

A page in my sketchbook. 

When you draw, you learn to see how beautiful and miraculous the simplest things are.

Winter Forest Watercolor Lesson

Winter Forest

watercolor painting by Rosa Phoenix

Happy Holidays!

Believe it or not, it's cold and wintry here in Arizona, and there's snow in the mountains!



We painted a wintry forest scene in my watercolor classes. 

This is a nice lesson for beginners. We learn about wet-on-wet technique, using masking tape, and color perspective (distant objects are lighter in color and appear blurry, while closer objects are darker in color and have more definition).



Step 1

We start by masking off the bottom part of the painting with masking tape, then applying a pale wash of paint (using lots of water) to the paper in a cool blue lavender color. 

This will be our sky.


Step 2

While the wash is still wet, loosely paint in the most distant layer of trees, using a slightly darker lavender paint that is very wet. I use a small round brush, using a quick back-and-forth motion. It doesn't have to be detailed, because the trees are very far away. 

We want the trees to blend in with the sky, to get a misty look.


Step 3

While our background tree layer is still wet, we loosely paint in the middle layer of trees in a blue green color. The colors will blend together and that's OK.


Step 4

We let our painting dry, and then we paint in our final layer of trees that are closest to us. We use a dark blue-green color paint, and we use less water this time, so our trees have more definition.

Finally, we remove the masking tape and paint the bottom part of our painting. I painted a wash of icy, light blue color.

My students used their imaginations to create a scene here: one painted snowy hills; another painted a deer, and another painted a river with fish jumping in it!

Remember to stay creative and open to possibilities. It's a wonderful way to live life!

Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona

Sketchbook: Papago Park, Phoenix

Papago Park "Hole in the Rock"

sketch by Rosa Phoenix

Here is a sketch I made in Papago Park, Phoenix, Arizona.  Papago Park is known for its unusual sandstone rock formations. This one is called "Hole in the Rock". It's said that the Hohokam ancient people used the hole as an observatory to view celestial events. It's one of my favorite places for watching a sunset. 

 Papago Park

 photo by Rosa Phoenix

My first on-location sketch since San Francisco. Luckily, there are a lot of beautiful sights to sketch right around Phoenix. I've found some other artists to sketch with, so that makes it more fun.

Painting a Feeling

3 mini paintings by Rosa Phoenix

Here in the desert, I am learning to make art all over again.

That's because, I'm finding that my artistic language and tools that I use (painting, drawing, photography, collage) are inadequate to express what I see and feel here.

Inspiration is everywhere.

The sense of space, eternity and the scorching radiance of the sun are overwhelming.

Visually, the desert is a stunning place, with sculptural rock formations, mountains and mesas, canyons, prickly plants, unusual wildlife.

Above all this, a great sky constantly unveils new wondrous shows of clouds, lightning, changing colors, light and stars.

I don't want to make "representations" of this landscape. That would result in a poor imitation of Mother Nature.

The great power I find in the desert is not what I see, but what I feel.

How can I put this feeling into a painting?  

These 3 mini paintings continue my experiments with horizontal bands of alternating colors.

These are more "painterly" and loose. These are not literal landscapes or skyscapes, but they suggest that.

Palo Verde in Bloom

 

palo verde tree in springtime

all photos by Rosa Phoenix

Spring has come to the Sonoran Desert. The palo verde is Arizona's state tree.

The palo verde is a native tree of our desert, with a delicate and feathery appearance. It is completely green, with green trunk and branches and tiny leaves.

In springtime, it covers itself with tiny, golden yellow blossoms.

I spent almost my entire childhood in Arizona. I've seen many palo verde trees. Yet I feel that I am seeing them in bloom for the very first time.

 

Why have I never noticed this before?

To see the street lined with many of these delicate desert trees, 

adorned with golden flowers, is a special vision.

I was sad to miss the cherry and plum blossoms of San Francisco this year. 

Imagine my delight to see the palo verde trees of a desert spring.

Sometimes, you have to go away for awhile, and return again, 

to see with new eyes, what you weren't able to see before.

South Mountain Petroglyphs

Dobbins Lookout view from South Mountain

all photos by Rosa Phoenix

Here are some views from South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona.  

South Mountain is a nice place to hike, bike, drive, or ride a horse.

Here you can see the desert landscape and views of the city of Phoenix.

Recently I hiked the Holbert Trail, which features many ancient petroglyphs, made by the Hohokam people.

 rock art

The Hohokam people settled and farmed this area in ancient times.

According to local oral tradition, the Hohokam may be the ancestors of the historic Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham peoples in Southern Arizona. (Wikipedia)

The city of Phoenix was named to acknowledge these original settlers, because a new civilization rises from the ruins of the ancient civilization.

rock art

Is that a whale or fish on the rock below the spiraling snake?

To me it looks like a whale.

Where would these desert dwelling people have seen such a creature?

Maybe someone had traveled from the California coast.

This desert was once an ancient sea . . . how things change!

 another human figure

or maybe a bird?

 the four directions

the cross

the Saguaro cactus,

native to the Sonoran desert

All photos were taken on my iPhone using the Camera+ app.

LINKS

South Mountain Park

Hohokam people on Wikipedia

I Follow My Heart

Heart Fire
photo by Abdulhamid Al Fadhly

Happy Rosa Phoenix Day! 

Today is Valentine's Day as well, a time to celebrate love and romance.

Today is also the one year anniversary of launching my business, Rosa Phoenix Art & Design.

It's also time to celebrate a new year (the lunar new year was on Feb 3 -- I launched my business on the lunar new year 2010). 

It's a good time to take note of a change, and the beginning of a new cycle.

I moved back to my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

This was after living for 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and prior to that, New York City.

I left Phoenix and my family at age 18, to see the world and live a life of my own.

I quickly adapted to big city life in New York and San Francisco, met lots of people, learned about other cultures, and made great connections everywhere I traveled.

Everywhere I went, I found love . . . in the form of friends, neighbors, romantic partners, and even kind strangers who helped me.

My heart went through its own changes.

It grew with love, it shrank with fear, it broke with sorrow, it strengthened with courage and resolve, it reached out to others when they needed caring, and it even broke others' hearts, through carelessness or cruelty.

My heart has been transformed by all these experiences and interactions with other people. I feel that now it is a stronger and wiser heart, growing and expanding more all the time.

I follow my heart. It constantly leads me to new places that are full of risk and renewal. My heart leads me on my journey as an artist, a twisting and turning path where nothing is known or secure. Yet this is what makes me happy.

My heart also leads me away from my comfortable and familiar life, and many people I love and care about. This makes me sad because I miss them, but I also have faith that my heart is leading me to the place where I need to be.

I trust my heart to guide me.

Now my heart is leading me back home.

I am returning, 18 years after I left, to live with my family again in Phoenix. It definitely feels like a full cycle has been completed, and a new one is starting.

For some time now, I've been having visions of the Arizona desert, its colors and textures and vast open spaces. Arizona is forever a part of me. It called me back, and I responded to the call.

I'm looking forward to the new adventure, whatever is in store for me.

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate the heart and the people you love. I always follow my heart, and my heart led me back home. Love is here with me, where it has been waiting all along.


What does "follow your heart" mean to you?

Sketchbook: Bell Rock, Sedona, Arizona

I made this drawing with crayons on pink construction paper.
 I like crayons because they have pure clear colors that blend well. Also, it is hard to take myself seriously when I am drawing with crayons. They take me back to my childhood! In art, this is a good thing.

This drawing is based on a photo my father took of me, standing in front of Bell Rock, in Sedona, Arizona. This area has magnificent red rock formations. There is a mysterious flow suggested by the swirling clouds and scarf. To keep the dreamy quality of this image, I faded the edges.