Watercolor & Pastel: Gold Line - Little Tokyo (Los Angeles scenery)

Gold Line - Little Tokyo 8x8 Watercolor & Pastel on paper

I am fortunate enough to have an abundance of very considerate and generous family & friends.  It's overwhelming at times, and makes me feel a little squirmish about the sweetness of my life, like I've somehow gotten more than my share.  I inadvertently ate all the cookies and there's not enough left for others at the party.  My family and friends send me images to paint - all the time. They might be walking along a street in New York, or Phoenix, or San Luis Obispo, or Los Angeles, and for some reason that humbles & baffles me - coming upon a scene that looks groovy makes them suppose I might like to paint it.  I get texts with images, emails with attachments, links to photo folders, disks in the mail, and postal envelopes with photos enclosed. And I use them all the time - from this gaggle of lovely people who somehow thought of my art-making when they spotted a nice bit of color & shadow, or an angled street scene, or light curling around a sleeping cat. How lucky can a girl get?  It's pretty stinkin' cool, and I sit here counting my blessings every time I look in my photo reference files, because they are filled with images snapped and shared by the sweet people in my life.

The reference image for the painting above - Gold Line - Little Tokyo, is courtesy of my son, Andrew Clark. (Thanks, AJ. xoxo)

New work for the exhibit at Gale's Restaurant - showing from July 10 - Sept 21, with an artists' reception on Saturday, July 29th from 4-6:00pm.

Artists' Reception July 29th from 4-6pm.
Won't you be our guests, and come have a glass of wine with us?

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Art Quote

Diego Rodriguez Velasquez de Silva was born in Seville in 1599. He belongs to that era so productive of genius, the era of Shakspere, Cervantes, Montaigne, Kepler, Galileo, Tasso, Guido Reni, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Rubens. At thirteen we find him studying painting under Herrera; then for five years he studied under Pacheco, a man of learning but not a great master in art. He had a charming daughter, charming at least to the young Velasquez, for he married her. From teachers such as these, Velasquez absorbed all they had to give. In the house of Pacheco he met the artists, poets, scholars, and gentlemen of the city, and became conversant with the best of them in manners and culture.

In 1623, when he was 24 , he was summoned by Olivarez, the all-powerful minister of Philip IV, requesting the young artist to come to Madrid. Attended by his mulatto slave, Jean Parejo - who himself became so expert a painter that some of his work has been attributed to his master - Velasquez journeyed to Madrid. In a friend's house he lodged and there painted a portrait which was soon carried to the palace by the son of a chamberlain of one of the princes. An hour later the prince, the king, and the king's brother had gathered about the portrait in admiration, and the future of Velasquez was assured.

Sketches of Great Painters, by Edwin Watts Chubb 1915