Sketching back in Los Angeles...

August brings our hot weather, and I found some relaxing places to sketch, and visited some museum shows too...

At LACMA, I love sketching from a shady bench in the Rodin sculpture garden...really a throughway from the older part of the museum to the new.  Occasionally someone stops to have a picture taken with one of Rodin's heroic figures or the dramatic giant heads while mimicking the gesture.  There's just something I love about the heroic stoicism of these figures with visitors breezing by.  Sketching here in pencil, watercolor and gouache.

While there I saw the recent "50 for 50" show--featuring highlights from their collection acquired since the museum opened 50 years ago...the highlight for me was the room of 19th-early 20th c. French art with these sculptures by Carpeaux and Degas...lovely still models!











At the Getty Center, a favorite view looks out on the Sculpture Terrace from the cafe...with bronze sculptures by Aristide Maillol, Rene Magritte and Henry Moore.  I had come to see the exhibition of Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto, and his beautiful red chalk drawings inspired the Getty in red (pencil and watercolor)...

I couldn't get enough of this great exhibition, and made some little studies on site with pencil, marker and ink on tan paper.  Why?  Well, I do this sometimes in an attempt to get perhaps a glimpse of what the Renaissance master was seeing...

As  I left at closing time in late afternoon, I paused on the steps to sketch the 8 foot "Boy with Frog" by  Charles Ray and Maillol's "Air" balancing below...

And on a warm Sunday at the South Pasadena Public Library, I sketched my old friend--the lovely Moreton Bay Fig tree with long late afternoon shadows...in pencil first (trying to train myself to take more photos of work in progress), then watercolor with a limited palette...

Sketching South Pasadena

In anticipation of teaching a workshop series in South Pasadena, I've done lots of sketching...and really enjoying the process of getting to know this lovely town.  In some ways South Pasadena seems frozen in time...in fact it's often been a film and TV location because of the old-fashioned small town atmosphere--so different from most of the rest of Southern California!


The heart of the town seems to be the library, and the magnificent Moreton Bay Fig tree in the library park.  Lots of weekend community events congregate there...

I love the process of preparing for a workshop--I start with essential techniques and ways of working--contour drawing and feeling the form with line.  All the textures of this beautiful tree are a perfect subject with a variety of tools...

sketching in broad strokes with a carpenter's pencil...

...line and tone--adding tones with watercolor quickly establishes a feeling of depth...
a family picnics near the fig tree as I sketch, and one of the little girls comes over to see what I'm doing, and offers to pose for me doing her ballet steps!

At frequent intervals, the Gold Line metro train breezes straight through town--I love the energy it seems to bring!

Another South Pasadena landmark...Buster's Coffee...painted here on a crazy-hot day in September...

 ...a view of the water tower from library park...

...I happened on to a classic car show one Sunday on Mission Street...and fortunate to get in some sketches before they drove away...this owner of this little turquoise jewel of a Thunderbird went into the bar next door, and the old Ford roadster drove up in front of me...

...and some South Pasadena people...sketched from Buster's across from the train station...