a bigger bacchanal

I enjoyed re-doing this painting so much at the Garter on Thursday, that I did it again at the Hive gallery yesterday! This one is 30 by 40, so it's a bigger party... and today I went walking and sketching around Echo Park. The angle of the light this time of year is captivating. I didn't really catch that in this sketch, but I sure think I can with paint!

bacchanal

Last night was another live painting event at the same bar in Venice, the Garter, a little chillier last night but still fun! But we didn't have a model this time so I decided to try out another master copy. This is Bacchanal Before a Statue of Pan by Nicolas Poussin, as painted by a satyr! oil on canvas, 22 by 28

parnassus

I was inspired by Lets Paint TV to do another master copy yesterday at the Hive gallery for the downtown artwalk. I wanted to do some 'live painting' but I didn't feel like portraits. But this was fun to do and people visiting were fascinated by the process. I explained it to one guy pretty well by saying I'm painting a Charlie Parker version of an Andrea Mantegna standard, the chord changes are there but it's all jazzed up! oil on canvas, 24 by 30. p.s. here's a 3D photo someone I met last night took of me. If you have the glasses, it looks really cool!

composition and painting

yesterday we had two models in my Composition and Painting class. When I talk to the students about 'composition' I always tell then that it's important to draw on large paper so you have the freedom to draw as much as you like and then you can later make a decision on where you want to crop the piece. Of course I started drawing in my sketchbook and so had to keep taping more paper on to make it bigger! ahahaha! A real case of 'do as I say, not as I do! Here I liked more of a close up of our two models, and then in the remain triangle of negative space that they left on the page I invented an opera house to give a feeling of foreground and background. I think this came out kind of fun! ink on paper, 8.5 by 14

a creative day

It was a long fun day yesterday. First in the morning I played a cameo in a video John Kilduff made for Lets Paint TV, the Captain Creativity Video Challenge! I played a very off-model Vincent van Gogh. aahaha!

Then in the afternoon I was over for a while at my friend Rod's house and his grandson and I drew a few maps of Los Angeles, I think this one turned out nice. (note map not to scale)

The in the evening I was live painting at the Garter in Venice. One of the artists brought a friend who dressed in a cool outfit for us to paint! We all painted on the patio out front which was nice and could mingle with the patrons and hear the great D.J. which made for a good environment. oil on canvas, 36 by 24

travel town

Todays paint out for the Digital Landscape class was to Travel Town in Griffith Park to photograph and draw and paint all the cool trains they have there. I painted this new piece on top of this past one that I was not really excited about. But it's really fun to work a new piece on top of a failure because it's a challenge to overtake the old painting. oil on canvas, 15 by 30

teaching painting at the Hive

I led a small group of students in a private, four hour painting class at the Hive gallery last Sunday. They were all beginners, my favorites to teach! I started off with an intro lecture for an hour and then we had a model for three hours of painting. They really enjoyed it and were impressed with their work, especially since some of them had never painting before ever! The first day was, naturally, monochrome and here was my demo that I painted along with them. If anyone in the Los Angeles area reading this blog is interested in a painting class led by yours truly, contact me at the e-mail at the top of the page and we'll schedule a time for the next class. oil on canvas, 16 by 12