Been to L. A. #2

This was an interesting painting to do and I learned a lot. I didn't know what to put down first - some people say work back to front, some say front to back - and a thousand other shoulds. So I just started with the sky because that was the thing I was most interested in. I used a red orange ground and laid in the low whites and blues and couldn't get a good build up of paint on the surface, you know, really thick for those whites. So I left that and went on to the rest of it, trying to stay loose, even though this doesn't look loose. Finally toward the end I realized I needed a softer brush to lay the paint on thickly, because a stiffer brush picks up the paint after the first hit on the surface. Sure enough, a sable layers it on, very good to know for next time.

Been to L. A. #2

I am blundering along at this, but how else to get it? Spent the afternoon watching Utube

tutorials.

Been to L. A. #1

My first landscape. Although I like this genre, I haven't felt the pull of it until this last trip to L.A. All those palm trees jutting out from the tops of squashed together houses and the sky cut by wires and cables. And low heavy skies, very moody.