Sketching at the Museum...

Some wonderful shows have visited the Getty Center this summer, and with every visit I do some sketching.  The Richard Meier building always has dramatic light and shadows, and the 360 views of Los Angeles are fantastic!

 From an evening at the Getty Center, which coincided with a large brush fire some miles north--the sky looked bruised with red-violet clouds as the sun was going down...

Later, a fun gathering of artists!





The summer brought "Unruly Nature:  The Landscapes of Theodore Rousseau"--drawings and paintings of the great 19th c. French landscape artist.  I found his work so inspiring--I made several visits and lots of little studies.  I learned a new and very useful word: "ebauche"--a word used by critics to mean unfinished--but precisely the quality that makes his work feel very fresh, even raw at times.  Here are some little thumbnails studies in pencil, ink wash and markers...

Inspired by Rousseau's work, a view from the Getty of Los Angeles, looking southwest towards Santa Monica in watercolor and gouache on top of a pencil drawing...

 More Getty visitors...lunch next to the Sculpture Terrace...

More sketching inspired by Rousseau...first a pencil sketch of the hillside looking east...

I returned soon after to add watercolor and gouache to this view...

Summer evenings at the Getty--are lovely!  

Waiting for the tram to leave the Getty Center...a quick sketch of "That Profile" by Martin Puryear...

Currently on view until November 13 at the Getty Center is a spectacular painting show, "London Calling" with the works of Bacon, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach, Kitaj--and the absolutely stunning work of Lucian Freud.  If you're in Los Angeles--not to be missed!

Sketching on the Road...

This past spring I've enjoyed traveling twice to Joshua Tree and the Mojave Desert town of Twentynine Palms--in March and again in May.  As much as I love my city, Los Angeles, I love the contrast of the desert--the wide open terrain and slower pace of life.

The trip always begins (happily for me) with passenger sketching...

Sketching life and my friends in the desert makes me feel right at home there...

Every desert trip includes at least one visit to the Country Kitchen in Joshua Tree...love this place not just for the great breakfast, but the wonderful atmosphere, a mix of the homey and exotic...

And then there is the Twentynine Palms Drive-in movie theater--what a treat to watch a movie wrapped in a blanket under the desert night sky munching popcorn!  "Zootopia" in March, and "Jungle Book" in May...(have to admit here that color was added a bit later from memory!)

 One of the things I love about these desert visits is painting what has now become familiar landscapes with media I want more practice in...gouache paintings in March and May on the outskirts of Twentynine Palms.  March's painting on a yellowish handmade paper, and May's painting on Canson Mix Media Artboard (ideal for gouache!)  More gouache painting to come!

 And of course, there is Joshua Tree National Park...I can never get enough of those rocks and that beautiful high-desert terrain.  Experimenting in thumbnail sketches with the set of Kuretake Gansai Tambi opaque pan watercolors I bought in Singapore...

A dry, drought-ridden landscape in Barker Dam...

And I keep returning to a favorite spot in Hidden Valley...

And finally, the drive home, back to the city...