Reflections of an Artist

California Art Club Exhibition: Natural Beauty

        The California Art Club reception was this last Saturday and it was a wonderful night filled with great art, friends, family, food, drink, and entertainment. I have been very excited about this reception since many of my friends also were juried into the show, titled Natural Beauty, at the Blinn House, which is home to the Women's City Club of Pasadena.

        My good friends, Chuck and Beverly Turner, drove up from Orange County for the event, and Jeff, my husband's two sons came with their girlfriends. It was wonderful to have friends and family there to share the event.I knew many of the artists on display, including Marian Fortunati, Patricia Franco, Laura Wambsgans and Karen Winters. It seemed that every time I turned around there was a friend to congratulate. I also met several of the other artists as I was admiring their work.

        The exhibition had many lovely pieces hung throughout the beautiful rooms of this prairie style mansion. The impressive setting, with its lovely leaded glass windows, balconies, window seats, tiled fireplace and carved staircase, really added to the quality of the event.

        I felt the Jurors' Choices Awards were all well deserved, and offer my enthusiastic congratulations to everyone who was chosen to show their work. You can see all the paintings on the California Art Club's website.

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Artist of the Canyon Salon

LA River

        I don't usually paint buildings or bridges, but today when I walked down to the LA river, I thought I would give it a go. I was meeting a group I have recently joined called Artists of the Canyon for a day of art.
       
        Dahl Delu suggested we meet in the morning in Glendale to paint and the morning haze was still hanging over the scene when I set up. I loved the way the two bridges crossed over each other with the river winding to the left under the arch that was behind the trees.

       The handful of artists who painted at the site with me then met up with other members at Dahl's home for lunch and a discussion about art. After the great feast, we all got down to the business of critiquing the paintings.

       Everyone was very supportive with compliments and helpful with constructive corrections that would improve my paintings. A fresh eye looking at your work will often see what you may be too engrossed to notice. I went home and incorporated several of the suggestions that were made by my club members. Interesting people, beautiful art, fine food . . . what more could you ask for?

    LA River is the final result of this very fun day. I am quite pleased with this painting and look forward to doing a larger version of the same scene.
      

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It's All Happening at the Museum: Chicano Painters of LA

Carlos Almaraz

        The Chicano art movement has a friend in Cheech Marin. Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of LA: Selections from the Cheech Marin Collection at LACMA is a show filled with movement, color and style but most important, political content. Not enough art today has the courage to be so bold.
        Even though this is an exhibit of one man's private collection, the show has a rhythm which draws you to the next painting.
I liked all the artists but Vincent Valdez, with his strong political content, stands out. The colors are hypnotic and his perspective thrilling. The painting he completed for this show of the police in Macarthur Park is especially compelling.

Kill the Pachuco Bastard! by Vincent Valdez

        The entire show is full of energy which transforms the everyday street life scenes above the ordinary and gives a beauty to the more disturbing subjects.
        This show is worth seeing.


Mas Juegos (More Games) by Limon

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Broad Contemporary Art Musuem

     
                                                                                     Jasper Johns

    Los Angeles has been adding art museums to the city at a fast pace since I moved here in 1980.  The addition of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum or BCAM at LA County Museum of Art, is the latest addition to this list.

    I was not impressed with the installation of rows and rows of old style light posts that lead into the entry courtyard, but liked the mural painted old car which is roped off and warrants it's own guard.  The buildings red steel and glass entry are easy to access and have a simple elegance.  Take the outside escalator to the third floor.

    The large galleries on the top two floors are filled with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns and many more crazy, sixties artists.  It is an assault of color and form.

    Take the immense elevator down to the ground floor, as an introduction to two larger than life steel sculptures by Richard Serra. These pieces are made to walk into.  I experienced one of his sculptures many years ago at the Temporary Contemporary and fell in love with his work then, but these two are even more amazing. The huge steel plates lean at unnatural angles, which is disorienting as you walk through. The rust patina of the steel reminded me of the water carved sandstone caves I visited in Utah.  Walking through small openings into large spaces surrounded by the weight of these metal walls is transforming. While I was inside one of these sculptures, a family came in with two young children who spontaneously ran around the inside circular space laughing.  I had the same reaction.

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California Art Club Critique Session: The Making of Great Art

        Criticism can be a good thing if it is coming from someone you respect, someone who has achieved a level of expertise. That is the concept behind the California Art Club Annual Critique Session: The Making of Great Art, that took place on June 29 at the Autry Museum. Associate members were encouraged to submit two works which were to be discussed by a panel of accomplished artists. Joseph Mendez, Bela Bacsi, Tony Pro and Amy Sidrane were the artists who gave their insight about the submitted work.

I didn't submit any pieces but I knew I would still learn from the panels comments. Here are a few of their suggestions regarding value, composition, and texture.

Value: 1) Make sure your light source is constant so the highlights and shadows confirm the light direction. 2) Try squinting. This will simplify what you are looking at and reduce it to very easily seen shapes of light and dark. 3) Reflective light is a change in temperature not achieved with a lighter color. For example: A gray rock will reflect a warm color from the ground in it's shadow.

Composition: 1) The more complicated the scene you are painting, the simpler the rendering should be. 2) Start out by painting a smaller scene. Don't try to take on too much. 3) Decide on a focal point and maintain that focus by painting the rest of the scene with softer edges. 4) Vary you shapes. If there are five rocks make sure that they are all different shapes. The same goes for a row of trees. Make each distinctive.

Texture: 1) The heaviest texture should be used in the foreground because it jumps that area closer.

As I list these comments, they seem obvious but it is amazing how many of the paintings needed improvement on one or more of these basic points. I know many of my paintings do. Maybe I need to make up a checklist that I review before I consider a painting to be finished. Hey, that sounds like a great idea.

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