Reflections of Lotus

Sometime around June or July, I went to Echo Park and painted lotuses.  The Echo Park Lake is home to LA's best and most famous lotuses.  When there is a lotus festival, it is there.  I'm a little disappointed in the painting, probably because I've spent years thinking about painting lotuses.  The delicate pink tips of the petals are nice though.

Walk in the Arroyo

Arroyo means river bed. So just as a river might run through town, and people might stroll along it, so does a river bed. In Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Northeast Los Angeles, it's called The Arroyo. And we walk In it. It's a popular spot for dogs, horses and runners. It's a nice walk close to nature.

Matilija poppies grow there. I think they were planted as part of a restoration effort. They bloom right around May 28, for I'm not sure how long. The flowers are huge and wonderful. They make you stop and look and say wow.

I wanted to paint the flowers, but I also wanted to paint a landscape. I did both. My current painting mantras (do other people have painting mantras?) are "don't waste the paper" and "you can't oversimplify."

Passion Flower

At the request of my younger son, here is a passion flower. We are fortunate to have these adorning our back fence. I painted it with a combination of transparent watercolor and gouache.

Oenothera speciosa

This is a new painting of evening primroses. And a bee. I'm not sure this is exactly how I'm going to crop it - there's more of the painting on both sides, but not too much happening there. The rock in the corner isn't part of the painting.

I'm thinking about entering this in a botanical art show, and while it surely qualifies by it's subject matter, I'm not sure it qualifies on technical grounds. For one thing, it's blown up several times larger than life. The bee is about the size of a small mouse. The foliage may lack sufficient detail. Botanical art is essentially scientific illustration. I think you're supposed to be able to use it to build an evening primrose plant if you don't already have one.

Matilija Poppies

Until about five years ago, I had never seen matilija poppies. Or at least I had never noticed them, which is inconceivable. I was walking in the Lower Arroyo in Pasadena, when I saw on the opposite side of the wash some of the biggest whitest most wonderful flowers growing on a huge tall bush. I crossed the wash at the bridge and examined them closely, awash with wonder. I went home and looked up "giant bush poppies." The ones in this picture are even larger than the live ones.

Happy Valentines Day to you. May you be awash in wonder.

A Couple of Days Away

Optimally, I suppose I'd wait a couple of days to post this. This isn't the painting that I worked on last night, that I'm only an hour or so from finishing, that I want to enter in a show. This is something I did tonight because I was thinking about valentines. I like valentines a lot. Not crazy about the holiday, but I think the cards are (or at least can be) quite wonderful. I'm mad for heart shapes. I don't know why. I doodle them constantly. I could be on the phone with the IRS, and I'd doodle heart shapes. Someone could get the wrong idea.

California

Here are some California poppies painted under the tutelage of Donna Barnes-Roberts. I'm sort of a California geek. Poppies and quail make my heart swell with pride. I love that our state fish is the same color as our state flower. Our natural features are spectacular. I think we have a wonderful flag, although I always think its a little sad and ironic that we honor an animal that we largely (or totally?) eliminated from our state. Less than 100 years ago there were grizzly bears in the San Gabriel mountains. However, if you can believe Snopes, it was supposed to be a pear on the flag, but somebody misheard.

Morning Glories

Sorry about this. For taking nature's most optically exciting blooms (a reason to use your ultramarine blue straight from the tube) and rendering them with all the pizazz of an office carpet.

All is not lost though, because I'm going to put you on to my picture framer. Pasadena Picture Framing, on Walnut in Pasadena. I've probably at one time or another been to every framer in the vicinity, to frame my paintings, paintings I bought, and prints that came my way. For less money than anywhere else, sometimes a veritable steal, you can have your pictures framed by a true craftsman with an artist's eye. I challenge you to pick a mat or frame you will like better than what Richart picks for you. And the service doesn't stop there: I believe, if you asked, he could improve upon your painting and deliver it yesterday.

While you're there, you could stop for food at Rick's Drive In. Nothing fancy, but I trust their meat, and like their hot sauce. The menu is unique and the ambiance is very authentic.