Book features more than 500 illustrations

Roy Purcell has spent a lifetime on a literal and figurative journey through the desert. His newly released book "Portraits of Nature" invites readers to come along for part of the trip.

The book is brimming with more than 500 original pen and ink watercolors Purcell created during a span of seven years. While much of the text is written by the artist, local experts George T. Austin, Donald Baepler, Alex L. Heindl, Patrick James Leary, Will Pratt and Brett Riddle contributed profiles on local insects, birds, plants, mammals, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles.

"Portraits of Nature" was published by Las Vegas based KC Publications with the help of grants from Bank West of Nevada and The Howard Hughes Corp. Proceeds from the books will benefit the Outside Las Vegas Foundation, a private nonprofit group dedicated to improving the stewardship of federal and public lands.

The art packed desert guidebook will be used for both fund-raising and educational purposes.

"I'm interested in having the environment protected. That's one of the reasons I did the book is to educate the public," Purcell said. "My biggest concern is the 4,000 people a month moving into the valley who didn't know what the desert is other than a barren wasteland. With that kind of an attitude you can see how concerned they are to preserve it. So I'm using the book as a means of showing them the beauty.

"It isn't a barren wasteland it's a magnificent landscape and it has all this life in it. I wanted them to become intimate with rattlesnakes and scorpions and ladybird beetles and lizards," he said. "They need to see how many hundreds of bird species there are here. It's amazing because we have six of seven life zones in an hour's time and Las Vegas is the hub."

The author reasoned that the book has strong commercial possibilities.

"They can do T-shirts, cups, posters. Imagine cards with scorpions on them. It's for a great purpose. I don't mind that. I'm not in this world to get rich. If I am, I blew it. I've been blessed that I've spent the last 30, 40 years doing what I wanted to do, doing what I felt I came here to do," Purcell said. "It's been a rich life. It's a constantly unfolding journey and I have no idea where it's going. Well. I do have an idea. I know along the way I've been growing, I've been healing myself. I've been coming together. I've been discovering who I am, spiritually, physically -- unraveling my past, my psyche, recreating myself and making myself whole."

Purcell's artistic endeavors began early.

"I started when I was a kid, always drawing things. I knew when I was in grade school that I was going to be an artist. I studied art in college at Utah State University," he said.

The artist wanted to combine both his etching skills and his poetry into a book he called "The Journey." In a meeting of the young student's masters committee, the art department head stood up and said, "This can't be done." When Purcell asked why, the professor responded, "Because it's never been done successfully."

English department representatives pointed out poet, author and artist William Blake.

"He said to them William Blake would have been better off if he would have stayed with just the engraving or his poetry, one or the other. So all the English people in the committee stood up and walked out," Purcell said.

Rather than cave to the professor's whims, Purcell went through the English department where he was offered a teaching assistant position and the promise of employment when the degree was complete.

"It went from getting no help, except stabbed in the back, which was a help in the long run, to having all kinds of support," Purcell said.

University life fell by the wayside when the masters candidate decided to explore the desert.

"I was writing all the poetry and then one day the inner voice, the 'old man' I call it, said 'It's time to leave the university.' It caught me off guard because I had it made," he said.

Purcell moved his family to Chloride, Ariz., a small mining town near Kingman, Ariz.

"That was the first mining camp in Arizona starting in 1861. There were all these old ghost towns and ghost camps and old mines in the hills. I loved going there and painting in the summers, so we just moved there and I got a job at a new mine," Purcell said.

The artist prepared mineral samples , a job that gave him plenty of spare time.

"And it put me living and working in those hills that I loved and I wrote a lot more of the poetry for 'The Journey,' " he said.

He also began work on the 2,000-square-foot Chloride Murals. It took four months to paint the murals outdoors along cliff walls. Purcell thought the job would take a couple of years.

"But nothing ever takes me as long as I thought," he said.

To make the job stick, he painted in the nontraditional medium of auto enamel.

"I figured they had tested the paints. They put them through salt tests, heat tests and sun tests. I painted them in '66 and then repainted them in '75. They're still pretty bright. I plan on going back and repainting them again. And he'll definitely be helping," Purcell said pointing to his son, and apprentice Loren Purcell.

Through the years the murals have remained graffiti free, a feat Purcell attributes to community pride.

"They respect it. One time somebody built a fire and burned a tire at the base of one of the panels and the black smoke discolored the panel and the townspeople got madder than hell and they went out there with tubs and buckets of hot soapy water and they washed it down," he said.

After a couple of years at the mines, Purcell was offered a job as museum director at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts in Kingman. Later he moved to Henderson to start what is now the Clark County Heritage Museum. In 1974 he retired from museums and became a full-time artist.

The etchings Purcell is best known for are among the largest in the world. The Henderson artist's larger works stretch 50 inches wide and more than 12 feet long.

Harry Clark of Boulder City was called in to build Purcell the world's largest etching press to accommodate the oversized works. When Purcell began work on the crucifixion for a series on the life of Christ the idea was just too big for a 2-foot by 3-foot plate. So he set out to find the largest possible paper and the largest size of magnesium plates to form the etching plate.

As for the images he etches and the words he writes, the author doesn't like to take much credit.

"The images come up out of the subconscious. The writings that I do, the poetry comes up from the subconscious too and I just take dictation. I just write it down. It's easy, you just listen and write. I've trained myself to do that," Purcell said.

While "Portraits of Nature" sells for $22.50 in paperback and $38.50 in coffee table book-style hardback, most of Purcell's books aren't nearly as affordable. The author's first book "The Journey" was published in an extremely limited edition of four elaborate handmade copies. His limited (to seven) boxed book on the Mormon Pioneer journey included an original metal etching plate in each box. Books like these sell for around $10,000 each.

Now Purcell is at work on a book he calls "The Goddess Journey." The etchings and poetry explore the concept of feminine deity throughout society's collective unconscious. The artist predicts this next book will be a big hit when it comes out.

"But I'll probably be long gone by then," he said.


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