At the Norton Simon Museum (work in progress)

At the left, the more recent version (this morning's work), after considerable re-painting and also some sketching on a pad for composition alternatives, something I should have done before I started painting. (I ultimately kept the composition, so don't go blind trying to discern the difference.)

One of my favorite galleries at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is is one that is full of figures by Degas. This particular oil painting, on an 11"x14" canvas, features a guard in a blue blazer, whose pose echoes that of the bronze figure. The painting also reminds me of this post --a favorite of mine--by Mademoiselle Gramaphone, which features another artist well represented at the museum, Rodin.









Below is the first version. (Last night's.)

Trees at Night

This is an oil painting on a shellacked hardwood board, about 24"x20." Another Pasadena Old Town scene, this time off a side street, at the side of a parking lot.

I was inspired to paint these trees by a recent post by Vivien Blackburn, at paintings prints and stuff, of trees she had drawn and painted.

Karate Student at Night (work in progress)

June 14 update: On left, the most recent version.



This is an oil painting on 36"x48" canvas. It's another Green Street night scene, this time of a student at the karate school, that I am painting from I photograph I took while on the same walk that resulted in the painting, Discord on Green Street.

There were two students and a teacher in the studio. The students were blindfolded and doing moves that their teacher called out. This is a painting of one of the students, just gathering himself to move.

Mythological creatures in our lives/Can you name this painting?

Update June 3: The painting on the left is the most recent (with special thanks to help from Pasadena Adjacent). I've re-painted a lot because changing the background made me also change the foreground and the girl's face and arm, especially, but some of the difference in colors is due to different light, today.


Original post:
I've painted further on Girl on a Cell Phone in response to some helpful in-person criticisms and reactions. As part of my response to the kind of blank reaction I got to the title and painting, I'm looking for a better title. Any suggestions?

Discord on Green Street

I've painted some more. I think it's time to wait awhile and then re-assess.

Discord on Green Street (work in progress)

This 20"x24" oil on canvas is one of the things I've been working on. This is painted from a photo I took recently on a warm night in Old Town Pasadena.

Shopping for Vegetables and Breakfast at the Cricket Cafe, together

These are what I believe are the completed paintings.

On Shopping for Vegetables, I did considerable re-painting since the last post and completely changed the light. (Thanks, Cafe Pasadena.)

On Breakfast at the Cricket Cafe, I worked mainly on the sign, the female figure and the truck.

Girl on a Cell Phone and Girl with a Red Muffler, together

I've done some thinking and some painting on each of these and decided to post them together because they go together in my mind. Both instantiate and memorialize parts of LA that I love.

Girl on a Cell Phone, set in Silver Lake in winter, has been considerably punched up. I've developed the girl to the point where she more than holds her own with the looming mural.

Girl with a Red Muffler, set on a winter day at the old Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax, has also had substantial work on the central figure, especially her face, shoulder and hand.

Girl on a Cell Phone

This is an oil painting on a 20"x24" canvas that I painted yesterday. I painted from a photo taken outside an LA coffeehouse. What fascinated me was the relationship between mural and woman and the rhythm of their gestures.

This is a painting in progress. I need to wait and look again.

LA Boy and His Dog

This painting is of a young man hugging his puppy in a Silver Lake coffee house.

I painted from a photo taken by my daughter, Amanda. The support is an approximately 20"x26" oak board, that I primed in clear gesso. This is the first painting using pieces from the 4'x8' board that I got from the hardwood store, and it's the first time I've used clear gesso.

LA Day:Red

This is a painting in progress. I started it yesterday and will want to wait a day or two and look at it again to see what I want to add/change. It is on a 16"x20" canvas and has its origin in a cell phone photo I took this winter at the old LA Farmers Market.

Although I paint in oil, I don't use any turps or turps substitute. Clean up is by wiping as much off the brushes as possible and then washing/rubbing with soap and water. The brushes are actually in better condition than when I used Gamsol.

Boy and Girl at Night, 2009

I painted this from a cellphone photograph. What was important to me, and the reason I painted this, was the relationship between the two people, both on the canvas and in life. This is clearly a contemporary urban street scene. The city is Los Angeles, late on a fall night.

This is an oil painting on canvas, 18"x 18". The square shape is something I've been using a lot ever since a few months ago, when I found a few squares of cardboard, gessoed them and started using them for quick little paintings.