This is the blocking in stage of the Miocene Clarendonian California Coast Range oil painting. Get the main colors in then go back and put in more detail. I like to do the animals last. The sky is finished and so is the distant mountain vista—this helps set the light and shadow. #paleoart

The barren western Nevada desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada will burst into amazing blooms after plentiful rains. Beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris) yesterday near Silver Peak. Unreal blossom color

Engelmann hedgehog cactus, also known as calico cactus. In full bloom now, Mojave Desert, California

Western whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris) under an arrow-weed shrub. An active search predator, mostly insectivorous. They often rake leaf litter with their broad hands looking for small insects like termites. Death Valley National Park. #herps #Squamates

Pacific bluefin tuna leaping out of unusually warm Pacific waters with flying fish and gulls. Southern California Channel Islands in the 1890s, based on old sport fishermen descriptions. Oil on cotton rag paper 2006 #HistoricalEcology #oilpainting

Finished the sky on my Miocene Clarendonian-age Coast Range painting. Oil on canvas. Next: the background trees in full color layers. More photos ⬇️ #paleoart

Interesting high level clouds ripping off the southern Sierra Nevada crest from the approaching front and moving out eastward over the Death Valley region this afternoon. #weather

“Land of No Fences,” my reconstruction of late Holocene California grizzly in the South Coast Range 300 years ago. Blue oak savanna and nodding needlegrass (Nassella cernua). Oil on cotton rag paper primed with shellac, 1997.

Showy Gilia in the northern Mojave Desert. The bloom is moving upslope now, a fantastic wildflower year. Take care of yourselves during these troubled times

The only Hyaenid to access North America: Chasmaporthetes, the “running hyena.” I chose to reconstruct it like an aardwolf (Proteles) which might be related—long legs sure look similar. Chasma was more carnivorous but not bone-crushing. Dorsal mane raised to appear bigger. Pliocene #paleoart

Morning with desert gold, also known as desert sunflower, below sea level in Death Valley south of Badwater. Amazing how they grow out of rock-studded barren alluvial fans given a couple of good rainstorms. The Mojave Desert is thriving this year

Crepuscular rays after sunset appear to be shadows of tall Sierra Nevada peaks cast far out across the Nevada Desert. Upper Amargosa River

In almost 30 years of living in and around Death Valley I have never seen the calthaleaf phacelia this dense and abundant, coating the barren rock hills with purple. They are having a banner year in this hyperarid part of the Mojave Desert

New blog on books, information, observing nature, conservation. Link below

Study of Bone-crushing dog Borophagus from the Pliocene of North America. Hat tip to paleoartist Jay Matternes whose Cenozoic mammal reconstructions are amazing. I saw his murals in the Smithsonian when I was a kid, influenced me forever. Pencil on paper 📝 🧪 #paleontology

Pelagornis, a giant Tertiary seabird possibly related to ducks. Member of extinct pseudotooth birds, it had bony teeth-projections on jaws. Speculative feeding behavior: dipping for squid as soaring across oceans, or nest predator? This is going into my Pliocene coast painting for a museum #paleoart

Death Valley desert gold now!

The diversity of North American Blancan-age Camelids is off the charts: llamas, goat-camels, giraffe-llamas, giant camels. They must have been filling Pliocene niches before the Bovids arrived during the glacials. Pencil size chart; not all may have been contemporaneous #paleoart

A couple of January lesser mohavea wildflowers sneaking in a bloom, Death Valley

Field sketch with ballpoint pen of Deinonychus life restoration model in 2004 at a San Diego Natural History Museum dino exhibit. #paleoart

Ice crystal ring around the waxing crescent Moon over the Mojave (iPhone can’t pick up the crescent)

Temporary lake at Badwater this week, from flash flooding. Death Valley National Park

Lightning flash makes cloud tops glow for an instant. Night photo with iPhone of Arizona monsoon storm as seen on horizon from southern Nevada 150 miles away

Touch of rainbow between thunderstorms in the northern Mojave

A mural segment I painted on a wall in 2006 showing Dimetrodon and a Permian scene. Geology 2 building, Fresno State University CA. I wish I had better photos. Alkyd paint, about 4 feet high. #paleoart

Volcanic dome of silica-rich lava rock, Panum Crater in the Eastern Sierra region by Mono Lake, California. The last eruption was 650 years ago. The pumice crater surrounds the plug.

Alkali wetland with Saltgrass in Sarcobatus Flat, Nevada, on east side of Death Valley National Park. Don’t sell off these #publiclands

This is what I seek: bitterroot blooms (Lewisia rediviva) and native bluebunch wheatgrass, in the sagebrush steppe of NE Nevada, protected from cattle grazing. We found elk scat here

Many millions of acres of Western US public lands are seeded with crested wheatgrass, a Eurasian cool-season bunchgrass that is often genetically engineered as cattle forage. Native sagebrush steppe is so much more biodiverse

Cassin’s vireo migrating through cottonwood groves in upper Amargosa River desert riparian area, southern Nevada. This one was singing a slow conversational series of phrases 🪶

Yellow warbler in willows. This male was singing “Sweet, sweet , sweet I’m so sweet.” They breed in spring-fed desert riparian areas in the Death Valley National Park area 🪶

Just when you think the desert is dry to a crisp and dead and nothing is blooming, a spinystar cactus (Escobaria vivipara) erupts in color. Never underestimate the Mojave Desert

A swarm of Swainson’s thrushes is moving through riparian groves in the upper Amargosa River wetlands in the northern Mojave Desert, Nevada. They are hunting insects in mud patches and leaf litter. One sang a soft complex ascending spiraling song. #birds

Western tanager in honey mesquite with a caterpillar. Northern Mojave spring system in upper Amargosa River east of Death Valley National Park. #birds

Mojave Desert rare wetlands and riparian areas are migrant traps right now, with warblers, flycatchers, vireos, and thrushes stopping into lush willow-cottonwood groves for insect feasts. I took this photo of a pretty boi Summer tanager showing off #birds

American badger, about 2 years old. Mojave Desert, upper Amargosa River, Nevada.

Mojave Desert vista with rain clouds, Clark County, Nevada. Public lands are under threat of disposal and urban sprawl by sneaky congressional bill, which proposes to ax the Ivanpah Area of Critical Environmental Concern that protects tortoise and white-margined penstemon

I use both digital and traditional media for #art and illustrations. I like Photoshop as a powerful tool, especially if there is a fast deadline. But I’ll never quit using pencils, paper, and paint. In fact I collect old traditional media such as ancient drafting supplies

White-winged dove chases off larger Eurasian collared dove from old ranch roof

Sunset view of Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada with Joshua trees and Mojave yuccas

Hiking up and down Red Cone in Crater Flat volcanic field in the upper Amargosa River watershed, Nevada. This California bush buckwheat was blooming. I was have a hard time keeping the camera level sliding down the steep cinder slope.

I’m working on a #paleoart commission to illustrate Miocene, Pliocene & Pleistocene scenes for a museum, 4 big paintings that will be hung on display next to the fossils. I’m going to share progress on this project over the months. I’m starting with research #paleontology

My thoughts on dire wolves and conservation biology at @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/16/t...

Neogene North American studies from a while ago. Three-toed horses, Nimravid sabercat, and assortment of bizarrely horned Dromomerycids (extinct ruminants). Plus a Stylemys tortoise. Pencil on paper. #paleoart

No wildflowers this spring in the northern Mojave Desert, but the wild views are still stunning. Sarcobatus Flat, Nevada, volcanic pumice flat.

Juvenile Yellow-backed spiny lizard (Sceloporus uniformis) on an old ranch shed, Mojave Desert. Artsy #herps

The cheatgrass cycle: we’ve lost a tremendous amount of native perennial grasslands to livestock grazing, which then enter a vicious cycle of weedy conversion to introduced annual grass, thriving on disturbance. This is why most fuel breaks in the sagebrush zone fail to halt wind-driven wildfires.

After getting some rest, I am in awe of everyone who continues to lift their voice and speak out. This is a moment for our country, and we must make a choice about the America we want to be.

Turtleback (Psathyrotes ramosissima), Death Valley

Sketch for large-scale painting now at Badlands National Park visitor center of the Brule Formation, Oligocene. Hoplophoneus leaps out at 3-toed horses. #paleoart