New Painting: Grey Building, Blue Sky

Grey Building, Blue Sky, oil on canvas, 2010, 30 x 40 inches

Living in Southern California, one quickly becomes acclimated to the agreeable climate. We do have weather, and our fair share of air quality issues, but some days are so gorgeous that it literally stuns me when I walk outside. There are often no clouds, the sun is shining, and the sky is blue, so blue that it is hard to describe.

My paintings are inspired by what is around me every day, and this image is no exception. I walk by this building on my way home from work, and I am often struck at how beautiful the grey building looks against the blue, blue sky.

Describing that sky became one of the major problems with this painting. While the composition is admittedly simple, painting this image wasn’t easy – the colors had to be perfect. In the early stages, the colors I mixed were solid, opaque, flat. While this is a common way for me to deal with architecture and solid areas of color, it wasn’t working in this painting. I soon realized that a more complex color palette was necessary to balance the simple composition.

The final colors are built up of thin, transparent layers, using a technique called glazing, which is nearly as old as oil paint itself. Through optical blending, thin transparent layers merge to create a solid color, but a color that has more depth and richness than a flat mixed color. The blue sky was created with several different shades of blue layered over each other until the right brightness and color was reached. The grey building was built up using several colors of grey, and finished with a thin wash of orange, to give the building warmth and to bring it forward from the receding, cool sky.

I am happy with the end result. This painting is my most recent exploration into the "Natural Beauty" of Los Angeles. While more abstract than most of my work, I love the image and hope it has the same freshness that I feel when I see this building on my way home from work.

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.