My Studio(s) on a Typical Evening

Here are some recent views of my studio spaces: my garage in the top three photos and my living room on the bottom. I am a man richly blessed with two places to work.

A View of the Arroyo

Here is a scene of the Arroyo Seco from the Colorado Street Bridge. The Vista del Arroyo is in the background. On the left are some historic bungalows. At the bottom right is a beautiful new condominium designed to look like an Italian piazza. I did a quick sketch of the scene in my Aquabee sketchbook using pen and ink and blocked out the major shapes, punching up the colors slightly and emphasizing the light and shadows.

Explorations of Los Angeles 4

The top view is from my car heading home from a late afternoon meeting. The bottom view is looking south to downtown from the Elysian Park bridge.

Explorations of Los Angeles 3

Here are collages of the Music Center and a view of downtown from Elysian Park.

Explorations of Los Angeles 2

Here are the next two paintings: The Los Angeles Cathedral and the view heading north on the 110 Freeway at the four tunnels following a red car.

Explorations of Los Angeles 1

I have just completed the first eight paintings of my new series entitled Explorations of Los Angeles. These are 16" x 20" collages consisting of original watercolor paintings on both hot and cold press paper; small thumbnail sketches in pencil; with color and composition studies along the top and bottom. They are mounted to a gesso'd, cradled hardboard panel with acrylic matte medium. I added lines, stenciled text and accents with colored pencil to complete it.

Burrito Express

Here is the next painting in my Rainy Night Los Angeles series: Burrito Express, the ultimate burrito place, located in Pasadena. After taking a reference photo and making a tiny thumbnail sketch, I roughed out the scene in pen and blocked in the major areas of color. I haven't yet added in the white accents or any detail. I will do that next.

In N Out Burger

Living in Southern California is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which is living a mile away from In N Out Burger: the ultimate drive-in. I am working on a new series called Rainy Night Los Angeles, featuring views of my favorite night time places, and this is the first piece.

I took a few reference photos at different times of the evening, trying to understand the look and feel of light as night comes. I did a small 2" pen sketch to establish the composition before sketching the scene in my 6" x 9" Aquabee sketchbook. I started in the center with a light wash of yellow, and added red and blue as I moved toward the edge of the scene, away from the light. I enhanced the night sky with Ultramarine Blue and Marine Blue, and accented the sign lettering with Titanium white.

This is a study sketch that I will use to develop a larger painting.

The Art of Watercolour

I recently had the good fortune to be asked by one of the writers of the French magazine The Art of Watercolour if I would submit some images for an article they were doing on sketchbooks. Here is the finished product: a nice little spread, featuring my portable art kit.