MOJAVE GOLD
Mentor Huebner (c) 1953
Oil on Masonite 24" X 30"

MOJAVE GOLD

BY

Mojave Gold was one of the many landscapes Mentor painted during our six month Honeymoon camping trip through the United States. Mentor’s plan was to travel coast to coast in a sweeping wide circle intended to favor weather conditions. The idea: Camp out in the North and East when it wasn't freezing and in the South and West when it wasn't sizzling. The plan failed.

Everywhere we went 'natives' told us the weather was ‘unseasonable’, but we shouldn't worry and it would “soon pass”. We experienced freezing temperatures, heat waves, deluges, floods, hurricanes, electrical storms and blizzards. For us, bad weather was 'the' weather, until it 'passed'.

Death Valley was no exception. Its weather is ordinarily extreme and for our trip it pulled out all its stops. We witnessed all of it. It rained. Hard. We got stuck in the mud. Deep. There was a heavy wind and we were blasted with little rocks and stones. Then it got very very very hot. I couldn't take it. Mentor just tanned all the more.

Lives lost in the Mojave during the 1849 Gold Rush, and those lost ever since, have generated powerful warnings about traveling alone. Like who would?

You can't tell from the painting. It represents a moment in time. It's not a movie.

Mentor’s, Monet-like-painting is said by all who view it to be restful. Soothing. Comforting. That's a testimony to his talent. Never daunted by flash floods and mudslides, a tiny ray of sunlight was enough to trigger Mentor's artistic juices. “Lets do it”.

For him Sun and inspiration were inseparable. He had a ‘feel‘ for when the skies would clear. We'd wait and drink coffee. He'd scan the horizon, glancing around knowingly, and reassure me, "Pretty soon". No doubt this weather ESP was inherited from his great-grandfather who worked on a 20 Mule team in a Borax Mine. Or maybe he got the ability from his Uncle who was a 'water dowser'. Whatever, Mentor could always read the signs.

For our patience, the day of this painting, the Cosmos sent a blessing: In the midst of Death Valley's lava rocks ~ it sent a Sign. A Meteorite. Mentor had an Eagle Eye. I don't know which came first. Did painting 'fine-tune' his 'seeing'? Or did 'seeing' cause him to paint? Anyway, he spotted this unusual rock, many yards away. "That's a Meteorite!"

I said, "It must be a sign of Good Luck."

It's now the family's touchstone.

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