"Orange-aroonie"

 

Having fun playing around with watercolors. 

"Central Meridian Vignette #1"

 

Another painting from the exhibit at the LACMA titled "Central Meridian". I tok a bunch of pix but I could have taken twice as many. Oh well, next time!

"Breaking Storm, Coast of Maine"

 

Another copy of a watercolor by Winslow Homer. I think it turned out okay. But the foreground needs a little work. I just hope I don't overwork it. The best way to ruin a painting. 

"Calla-fornia"

 

A couple of pretty Calla Lilies I found at the Huntington Gardens. 

Thought I'd try painting them in watercolors. 

"Huntington Yellow"

 

A pretty flower I spotted while hiking through the Huntington Gardens last month. 

"Homerific"

 

I never saw the value of copying paintings of the Masters. But I've had a change of heart recently. I have a book of the watercolor art of Winslow Homer. What an amazing artist. The book includes explanations of the various techniques he employed. I decided to copy this painting, and it's prevent be a valuable lesson. I'm going to continue doing this, and keep on learning. 

"Dave or Frank?"

 

If you're a fan of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" you'll get the reference to the title of this piece. This space suit was part of a very cool sci-fi exhibit at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts in LA. It was the actual space suit used in the movie! The huge room was filled with all sorts of costumes from various sci-fi movies. I with I had taken more pix. Oh well...next time!

"The Vile Vial"

 

This was part of an interesting installation at the LACMA. It was an old garage filled with all sorts of junk from the 1940s and 50s. There were cool scenes wherever you looked. I took a bunch of photos, but I could have taken dozens more. This is the first of several paintings I'll be doing of this exhibit. 

"One Fish, Two Fish"

 

Spotted this colorful scene at the Asian grocery story in Eagle Rock, California a last month. The amount of fresh seafood was just incredible. In hindsight, I probably should have taken more photos--lots more subject matter for paintings!

"Lobby Hobby"

 

Saw this interesting scene while visiting museums in LA. Not sure if this is the lobby of the Motion Picture Academy Museum or the LA County Museum of Art. Maybe one of you could straighten me out on this. I'd be internally grateful! 

"Zen Rock"

 

Saw this cool little scene at the Huntington Gardens in LA a couple weeks ago. The entire estate is absolutely amazing. But I especially enjoyed the Zen Gardens. Worth a couple hours in just that part of the gardens. 

"The Church of Birch"

 

Spotted this birch tree walking around downtown LA. It was absolutely massive I didn't think birches were native to southern California. But nothing surprises me about LA, that's for sure. 

"Eagle Rock Altar"

 

This was another interesting little gem I found roaming the grounds of the place we were staying. 

"Eagle Rock Shrine"

 

On a recent trip to L.A., we stayed at a very cool VRBO in Eagle Rock. In the huge backyard (by California standards, there were a number of small shrines and altars. i took some reference photo of them and this is one of the paintings from them. I have to admit, I'm still terrible at rendering the human figure and face, so I keep those pretty loose on purpose. I think it still turned out okay. 

"Playhouse Plaza-Pasadena"

 

I spot this cool art deco looking building walking around downtown Pasadena a few weeks ago. When I looked it up, I found out it's actually a new building very striking. It's too bad there isn't more architecture like this around these days. So many modern buildings are simply boring. And that's a shame. 

"Bahamian Shells #12"

 

And yet another one!

"Bahamian Shells #11"

 

The next one in the series.