1997: Venice Beach and Santa Monica California, USA

 

In the late1990's I was obsessed with landscape painting on location, so called 'en plein air' painting and it occupied almost my entire output from 1996 until 2000. A friend of mine Ian suggested a trip to Venice Beach California to see the beaches and to see a TV show being taped live, it was the short-lived Tony Danza Show. I jumped at the chance to bring my paint set out to the west coast and found some time to paint the local scenery around Venice Beach and Santa Monica. I posted a blog previously showing a palm tree which was really new to me. This painting shows one of the many canals they built in the Venice Beach suburbs.

Venice Beach, Green Footbridge 5 x 7" watercolour, cold press, 1997 (No. 168)

 

The water and the beach seemed to dominate the landscape, and they maintain a wide network of publicly accessible boardwalks and parks. This is a typical scene, unique trees, beach, green grass, you can imagine the yuppies doing yoga on the lawn and the sound of rolling surf. Strange birds were hopping around on the trees and grass. 

Santa Monica, Tree and Fence, 5 x 7" watercolour, cold press, 1997 (No. 169)

 

 

But what would a painting trip be without a painting of a canon?  For example in Guelph, or Stratford Ontario. The palm trees here are a giveaway that this is not Ontario! I like the weight, texture and reflection of the metal cannon, it looks almost photographic in places.

Santa Monica, Cannon, 5 x 7" watercolour, cold press, 1997 (No. 170)

 

And another great scene of the beach with waves crashing into a a breakwater. You can imagine the Baywatch lifeguards running down the beach. In fact the water was pretty cold so not many swimmers without a wet suit. Plenty of sun bathers though.The use of purple in the distant mountains was quite effective, it must have been alizarin crimson red and french ultramarine blue.

Santa Monica, Breakwater, 5 x 7" watercolour, cold press, 1997 (No. 163)

 

Finally, I am showing a typical house that looks over the beach, it is covered in plaster and painted in bright pastel tones, with an art deco style. I was just talking about painting a blue sky, in this example it looks like I used cobalt blue or perhaps a mix of cerulean blue and french ultramarine blue. The attention to shadow tones is fantastic, another example of me not knowing anything about tonal colours but able to create accurately shadowed yellow and peach. I am not bragging, just wishing young Darlington had appreciated his paintings a bit more at the time! 

Venice Beach, Pastel House, 5 x 7" watercolour, cold press, 1997 (No. 164)

 There are a couple more from the trip I wont show for space, one of a statue, and one of a group of palm trees in Santa Monica (No. 0165, No. 0166)