Live at Charlie O's

Here's the arrangement from last night. I'm happy with the expressiveness and the color. It was a fun night, great music, video projections, people dancing. I think I got a nice little slice of nightlife.

Santa Monica and San Pedro

I did a couple paintings this week, I thought I'm post them here. One is looking towards Santa Monica Pier, and the other is of the Vincent Thomas Bridge painted from the deck of the S.S. Lane Victory in San Pedro. They are both oil on canvas, 12 by 24 inches.

2008 CAC Gold Medal Show

I have a painting in the California Art Club Gold Medal juried exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The show opens with a private reception for ticket purchasers on Saturday the 26th and to the public during museum hours on Sunday. The piece I got in is one of the portraits I painted in downtown LA on skid row. It's a good story and a good painting, I hope someone likes it enough to buy it!

click here for the original post

life drawing at the HIVE

I ended up with two favorites from the last Hive life drawing workshop. I'm attaching them for your viewing pleasure...

Charlie O's and golden poppies

On Sunday I went back to the lighthouse to hang out with Nathan and I brought along the painting and took the opportunity to paint some golden poppies "on the spot" I think they're a nice note of color and enliven the blues and greens and violets while tempering the earthtone oranges on the cliffs.

Last night I met up with Manuel at the Hive gallery and we headed up Spring St. to paint Charlie O's lounge at the Alexandria Hotel. Well, first we had a round of drinks and then we painted! That was fun and I'm happy with the painting.

LETS PAINT TV!

What a great show! Like a well orchestrated tumble down a flight of stairs.

painting at the downtown LA Art Walk

Here's a couple pics from the artwalk yesterday. I did one during the day south of 9th St looking up Spring and Main, oil on canvas 18 by 14. Then after the artwalk a bunch of the Hive artists were invited next door to the 740 Club to "live paint". It was a fun scene, beautiful old downtown Los Angeles theatre, lots of balconies, lots of people watching, crazy costumes, cool lighting. I was there with my paints, my headlight, and a 24 by 12 canvas trying to capture a little of the flavor there, keeping it real as always.

Also, here a nice picture a guy who saw me painting in Palos Verdes took, a good composition and a nice shot of me trying to paint the sunset light.

The Roxie

I did a 16 by 20 nightscape last night in downtown LA on Broadway looking toward the old Roxie theatre. I really wanted to slap the paint down on this one and not get nitpicky at all, just get it on there and let it be. Also I might have been painting really fast because I had to pee really badly! ^_^

grace at the hive

I like to paint live portaits at the Hive gallery openings because people enjoy and learn from watching artists paint! I'm a representational painter who likes to paint alla prima from life. So when I do live portraits at the opening at the Hive it's fun for everyone! I really liked the portrait I did of Grace, who sat for me for two 20 minute sessions. Grace is very fashionable and we share the favorite color purple! She wore a pink and violet dress to the opening which was VERY FUN to paint!!! Here is a detail...

Let's Paint Herring w/Inga & Blendtec

My favorite show on earth. I was honored to get to attend a live broadcast of the show this weekend!

back at the lighthouse

I met up with John Kilduff in Palos Verdes at the Point Vicente Lighthouse to do a larger painting and spend a little more time on it. I brought my acrylic and my oil setup and two 24 by 36 inch canvases. I started with acrylic on the first canvas, just washes like watercolor and only a little white for the waves and water. Even so, I wanted the underpainting to look as "right" as possible with only the transparent acrylic, which I let dry intending to completely paint the piece in oil later. I got so excited from the first acrylic lay-in, that I immediately did another one! So I'm posting a jpeg of both, the painting as it turned out in oil and the acrylic underpainting. It's kinda cool to see both, like looking at an x-ray of the finished piece. Also a detail of the water... I think all it needs are a few more mustard flowers and some California poppies in the lower left foreground...