LA Affection - Affectation

I have been back from LA for almost a week. It was only my second time back, and it was different. I felt like I had never left. I did not get to some of my favorite places or old haunts. I was three miles from Santa Monica and Venice and was never any closer than Playa del Rey. I did not even attempt the coast at Palisades or Malibu. I could kick myself for the later since juvenile whites were breaching off Will Rogers State Beach while I was there.

I also still didn't feel an earthquake.

I did a number of sketches, but not till the last few days of the trip did I really settle into painting. I made a few nice studies of my old neighborhood, around Ben's and of Eric and Suzan's backyard. I became really interested in line work after I returned from LA. It was too much exposure to Van Gogh drawings at the Getty, along with a lot of interest in Klimt when the Maria Altman paintings were restituted and put on view at LACMA. I was thinking of Klimt a lot as I made these. Then Jaime reminded me of a Klimt postcard I gave her that she had tacked up at her studio. I had forgot.

Below, Klimt, Roses under Trees




Below, Beeches. This is one of the Bloch Bauer paintings restituted in 2006 to her heir, Maria Altman. Before they were sold at auction they were put on display all summer at LACMA.



My works from the trip...

Mar Vista Fence, Jacaranda




Kumquat Tree, Eric and Suzan's Backyard, Silverlake



Hibiscus and Banana Plant Leaves, Ben and Scott's



Honestly, LA would not be so beautiful if it were not for the mountains, ocean, and the abundance of insane vegetation. Anything grows there.

I need to write about American Stories, and other art I saw while running around So Cal. More soon.