Tag: petroglyphs

At the urging of family and friends I am now offering some of my scratchboard art for sale. If you are interested you can view my work and shop at www.etsy.com/shop/SouthwestScratch.  

Anyone who has followed this site for long is probably aware of my interest in the ancient rock art of the southwest. I have been enthralled by these beautiful images for years; I’ve been to dozens of rock art sites, and taken thousands of photographs. I still get a thrill when I see a petroglyph panel that is new to me, and relive the trembling excitement of the first time I saw these amazing relics. 

Much of my interest is sustained by the mysteries the images embody. Who made them, and why? What significance and meaning did they hold for the people who chipped and carved them into the rock? What ideas or objects do they represent? What secrets do they reveal to the descendants of those earlier native people, and what what can contemporary viewers gain from studying and admiring this ancient art?

To help me explore the images in a different way, I began doing interpretive drawings of petroglyphs a few months ago. I use a scratchboard technique to render glyphs in miniature, etching away a layer of India ink to reveal an image in a colored-pencil ground. The images are of birds and animals, shamans and anthropomorphs. I use the same procedures to craft pictures of cactus flowers and desert scenes.

At the urging of family and friends I am now offering some of my scratchboard art for sale. If you are interested you can view my work and shop at www.etsy.com/shop/SouthwestScratch.  

Anyone who has followed this site for long is probably aware of my interest in the ancient rock art of the southwest. I have been enthralled by these beautiful images for years; I’ve been to dozens of rock art sites, and taken thousands of photographs. I still get a thrill when I see a petroglyph panel that is new to me, and relive the trembling excitement of the first time I saw these amazing relics. 

Much of my interest is sustained by the mysteries the images embody. Who made them, and why? What significance and meaning did they hold for the people who chipped and carved them into the rock? What ideas or objects do they represent? What secrets do they reveal to the descendants of those earlier native people, and what what can contemporary viewers gain from studying and admiring this ancient art?

To help me explore the images in a different way, I began doing interpretive drawings of petroglyphs a few months ago. I use a scratchboard technique to render glyphs in miniature, etching away a layer of India ink to reveal an image in a colored-pencil ground. The images are of birds and animals, shamans and anthropomorphs. I use the same procedures to craft pictures of cactus flowers and desert scenes.

Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site, Set No. 1. Please click any photo for enlarged views. 

Despite the name, none of the ancient rock images at Painted Rocks are painted. They are genuine petroglyphs, meaning the figures were made by chipping off accumulated layers of desert varnish to reveal lighter rock below. Some of the  petroglyphs here are attributed to very early inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert, who occupied the region between 7500 BCE and 1 AD. These glyphs are usually geometric or highly abstract designs in the Western Archaic Style. Later Gila Style petroglyphs were made at the site by the Hohokam people between 300 AD and 1450, and typically depict recognizable animals or human forms. 

There are an astonishing number of lizard, snake, and scorpion figures here. The Bureau of Land Management operates this site, and they have posted numerous signs around the rocks warning visitors of rattlesnakes and other biting and stinging threats. I’m not sure if there are unusual numbers of snakes in the vicinity or if this is just a BLM ruse to keep people from climbing on the rocks. I, for one, stayed on the path. 

Painted Rocks

Petroglyph Site

is about 20 miles (32 km) west of Gila Bend, Arizona, in Maricopa County. 

Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site, Set No. 1. Please click any photo for enlarged views. 

Despite the name, none of the ancient rock images at Painted Rocks are painted. They are genuine petroglyphs, meaning the figures were made by chipping off accumulated layers of desert varnish to reveal lighter rock below. Some of the  petroglyphs here are attributed to very early inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert, who occupied the region between 7500 BCE and 1 AD. These glyphs are usually geometric or highly abstract designs in the Western Archaic Style. Later Gila Style petroglyphs were made at the site by the Hohokam people between 300 AD and 1450, and typically depict recognizable animals or human forms. 

There are an astonishing number of lizard, snake, and scorpion figures here. The Bureau of Land Management operates this site, and they have posted numerous signs around the rocks warning visitors of rattlesnakes and other biting and stinging threats. I’m not sure if there are unusual numbers of snakes in the vicinity or if this is just a BLM ruse to keep people from climbing on the rocks. I, for one, stayed on the path. 

Painted Rocks

Petroglyph Site

is about 20 miles (32 km) west of Gila Bend, Arizona, in Maricopa County. 

Pratique: Scanned scratchboard renderings of rock art animals. Please click any photo in the set for enlarged views. 

Bison /  Ancestral Puebloan style / 100 x 200 cm.

Waterbird / Hohokam style / 100 x 100 cm.

Roadrunner / Mogollon style / 110 x 180 cm.

Prismacolor pencil and India ink on recycled Canson Bristol board,