La Casita

The Saturday plein air group met at La Casita del Arroyo in Pasadena yesterday.  The building is a special place on the edge of the Arroyo Seco.  It was finished in 1933 after years of planning by the Pasadena Garden Club.  Architect Myron Hunt designed the building as a small community meeting place.  For building materials, boulders from the arroyo were used as well as wood salvaged from the 1932 Olympic Velodrome which was built in the nearby Rose Bowl for the bicycle races.  Native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers are a beautiful part of the grounds.

It started as a hazy morning, the sun came out, and we had fun painting at the location.  There was also another plein air group on a paint-out from Antelope Valley which is quite a drive away.  The Casita had been rented for a birthday party so we painted through lots of deliveries.  We were finished by the time the party was to start at 12:30.
I've included a couple photos of the building as well as the view from there of the historic Colorado Street Bridge (1913) which I hope to paint in the future.
To me La Casita always has sort of a soft look since it has the off-white exterior walls, pale blue trim, and lots of airy plantings near it.  This is 8" x 10".