New Painting: Runyon Canyon Sentinel

Runyon Canyon Sentinel, oil on canvas, 2009, 22 x 22 inches

I first visited Runyon Canyon shortly after moving to LA. It is an incredible resource, an easy hiking trail centrally located in Hollywood. Within a few minutes of hiking on the trails, you can see amazing views of the downtown skyline, and the ocean to the west. On clear days you can see all the way to Long Beach. It is really breathtaking, and intensely beautiful.

It was in Runyon Canyon that I first got a sense of what the natural environment is like in this area. It is dry, with little rain. We are entering the rainy season now, and it is raining as I write this—-a welcomed interruption here. The lush plants in Los Angeles are watered, and palm trees, found in the wild only near abundant water sources, are no exception.

When I was hiking in Runyon Canyon, I saw this palm tree, and it immediately struck me; I knew I had to paint it. My paintings are about my observations, and my associated experiences and thoughts. This palm tree has layers and layers of dead leaves, suggesting that it has been here, watching over the entrance of Runyon Canyon, for a long time. It is a sentinel, testifying to the history of Los Angeles, and to our future. Like innumerable others, this palm tree has become deeply rooted in the new, natural environment.

Behind the palm tree, a narrow cloud delineates the course of the jet that preceded it. Both elements contribute to this depiction of natural beauty.

New Painting: Sunset from Mulholland Drive

Sunset from Mulholland Drive, oil on canvas, 2009, 19 x 14 inches

Mulholland Drive is a road in Los Angeles that loosely follows the ridgeline of the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains. Famous for having some of the most exclusive homes in the world, Mulholland Drive is also surprisingly accessible. The road was created as a scenic byway, and there are scenic view points perched along the road. The east stretch of Mulholland Drive reveals sweeping views of downtown LA, while the western stretch displays vistas of the San Fernando Valley.

My friend Lisa was in town from Boston the night of this sunset, and we witnessed the sun go down over the Valley. There is a quality of light in LA--Magic Hour--that is stunning and unique to the area. It never ceases to bring a smile to my face.

New painting: "West Hollywood"

West Hollywood, oil on canvas, 2009, 30 x 24 inches

This painting, the first in the Natural Beauty series, has been completed for a few weeks, and I finally had the chance to photograph it. This view is from Santa Monica Blvd, near our apartment. To see this painting in its earlier stages, click here and here.

Afternoon Walk

Today I decided to put my worries away for awhile and go for a walk down Santa Monica Blvd. The weather was great, and after painting in the morning, I needed to get out of the house. I moved to Los Angeles from Boston in June, and this is my first fall here. It is still somewhat shocking to be in a place where the seasons don't really change. But I'm not complaining - it was a gorgeous day.
Gotta love it!
Heading west on Santa Monica Blvd. out of West Hollywood, you will eventually reach Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is filled with orderly streets, many of them lined with palms. I have to admit, even though the palm trees are not native to the Los Angeles basin, they are attractive. They suggest a tropical place, and while this area used to be more of a desert, it has become an oasis of sorts, albeit a contrived and bit unnatural one. This idea of the natural vs. the unnatural is the basis of my current paintings, Natural Beauty.
Beverly Hills is a bit ostentatious. Other wealthy areas in Los Angeles would not have a large sign advertising their neighborhood, but in Beverly Hills, anything goes. There were many tourists taking photos of this sign, as there always is, and today, I was one of them. It was kind of fun.
I ended up on Rodeo Drive. I had never been there before, and while I will likely never shop there, it seemed like a good final destination. My favorite part of the area was this naked woman statue that watches over Rodeo Drive without eyes. This small street does have a bit of a village feel, and it was fun to walk around the area.

By the time I made it back to my apartment in West Hollywood, I felt like I had walked a hundred miles, and I was tired. But I enjoyed my walk in the sun.

Five Canvases

Yesterday I built five canvases. I went to the art store in the morning and purchased the materials, and what was once a pile of stretcher bars and fabric is now five painting supports. New canvases are so exciting because they are filled with so much potential.

Before you can apply oil paint to a canvas, you must cover the canvas with three layers of gesso. The solvents used in oil painting, as well as the oil itself, will eventually leach through the canvas and damage it without the protective gesso layer. “Gesso” is the Italian word for “chalk”, and traditionally, gesso was a mixture of chalk and rabbit-skin glue. This mixture is fairly brittle, and is suitable for wood or masonite. Modern gesso has an acrylic polymer base. This is much more flexible, and can be used on canvas.

So here are five canvases, drying on my porch, fifteen coats of gesso later.

My Obituary

I am taking a professional development class for artists here in Los Angeles, and our assignment for this week was to write our own obituary.  The goal of this exercise was to think about what we want to accomplish in our lives – what are our goals, and what do we want to be remembered for.  This was more difficult that I had anticipated – it wasn’t easy to think about what I want to accomplish, but ultimately, the exercise was rewarding.  It was effective in helping me flesh out what I really want to do with my art career, something artists often don’t think about.  If you had to write your own obituary, what would it say?  The text of my obituary is below:

BRADLEY HANKEY 1979 – 2067

Visual artist Bradley Hankey died in his Los Angeles home on April 21 at age 88. Hankey was born in Oregon, and moved to Boston to attend Massachusetts College of Art, where he graduated with a BFA in 2007. Hankey moved to Los Angeles in 2009, and graduated from UCLA with a MFA in 2013.

Hankey’s early work was influenced by Surrealism and artists such as Hopper, Hockney, Itten, and De Chirico. Places were also critical to his work, and his paintings were often inspired by his surroundings and travels. The “Natural Beauty” series of paintings, begun shortly after moving to Los Angeles, comments on the natural and the artificial environments of the area. These are among his best known works.

After graduate school, Hankey briefly taught at several area schools in Los Angeles, and was a frequent guest speaker at art schools around the country. His lectures often revolved around the importance of color theory and critical thinking in painting, as well as keeping traditional painting techniques alive. Hankey’s books are widely read. While his works often bordered on the abstract, he considered himself an observational painter, and championed this style of painting throughout his career.

Hankey’s works are shown in galleries in Los Angeles, New York, and Hanoi. His paintings have been collected globally, and he has shown in Museums in the United States, Vietnam, Costa Rica, and Tanzania. A retrospective of more than 100 paintings was mounted in 2035 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and traveled to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Painting in West Hollywood: Day 4

Today was a great painting day in West Hollywood. After a couple of days of cooler temperatures, the heat was back today. I love the heat, but I have made a mental note to choose a shadier location for the next painting.

The painting is filling in with color, and almost all of the original white space is gone. One of the joys of my job is discovering the intense color in the every-day world around us, and this location is no exception. In order to bring color harmony to this painting, I mixed a large amount of a purple-gray color. I then mixed almost all of my others colors with purple-gray, especially the background colors in the hillside. Some of the foreground colors are mixed full-strength, without purple-gray, to bring those colors forward create a sense of atmospheric perspective.

I am excited about this painting, and glad that it is coming to fruition. I had been looking at this scene nearly everyday; when I walk home from the gym, I wait here for the “walk” sign to cross the street, and day after day, I could see this painting. It became an obvious choice for my first plein-air painting in LA.

A few people stopped to chat today. One woman commented, “That’s great, I love that you are doing this.” Another guy: “This seems like a civilized way to spend the afternoon.” I enjoy interacting with the public, and this is one of the major reasons I have taken to the street with my work. I am looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.