A day in the Produce District. Los Angeles

 

This is  a no-words post. :)  Just check out the amazing video photographer and artist  Eric Minh Swenson did in the Produce District of Los Angeles while I was painting there. Music by generous friend and jazz master Kim Richmond.

E M S Video.

This are other works by  Eric: 

Thuvanarts

Downtown painting with Alex Schaefer

I've always admired Alex's Schaefer bold and wonderful artwork. I tell him that if I had money and a house I would just buy his pieces and Jennifer McChristian's. I just love both these artists a lot and I am lucky to know them both personally. So I called him up to see if we could go downtown and paint for a bit. He knew of some new park with wonderful views of the downtown skyline so there we went. The weather was great and Alex made such a beautiful and LARGE painting .


The skyline is deceivingly complex and it requires either great simplification of shapes or -if taking a more detailed approach- a lot of attention to color nuance, edges and texture.
Alex is always generous and open about his methods. His style is very free flowing. I loved the answer he gave to one young admirer. Young Admirer :"How long did it take you to paint this?" Alex: "We got here at one, so ...three hour and twenty years." I am adopting that answer.


He alternates between acrylics and oils. he painted with oils and a mixture of galkyd and gamsol as medium which made the paint somewhat workable when using wet on wet. And that's it, the rest is his awesome sense of color, design and color, really.

As a cap to our afternoon, I drove Alex around to one of my favorite spots in hopes we will be able to paint there sometime soon.

Back on the saddle

After my trip to Spain and my move to an apartment and what not, I've decided to regroup. I have started scheduling the rest of the year ( a dangerous task fraught with self-deception) and apply some of the lessons of past seasons. I signed up for Tony Pro's "Understanding the color of light workshop" of which I will post my impressions. I also intent to do larger pieces and delve a bit more into watercolor. Not to mention updating my marketing materials. Phew, I am tired already. One step at a time. I went out and forgot about it all painting this slightly overworked "Shakespeare Bridge" in Silverlake.

Chinatown

Exciting and artificial colors abound, shapes are never sedate, everything scintillates with people and movement. We are in Chinatown. Here are two of three studies I made from the same angle in three consecutive weekends(one sold) and under different weather conditions.

Winter in Los Angeles.

Winter in Los Angeles is the best time to paint outdoors. There are blooms from late January on, the weather is mild, the skies spectacular.