Exposition Park

A recent plein air paint-out was at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.  I hadn't been there for many years and it was fun to see how the area has changed, while staying the same.  The painting group was meeting at the large rose garden but that's only one attraction in the park which is operated by the state, county, and city.  The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is there, the only stadium to host the Olympics twice, in 1932 and 1984.  It's now primarily home to the USC football team.  The distinctive Natural History Museum is there, opened in 1913.  And almost one year ago at the California Science Center the Space Shuttle Endeavour arrived where it is now on display just across the rose garden.  I did a blog post last year, Space!, which has my favorite photo of Endeavour.      

There are some lovely and huge old trees on the north side of the rose garden so I didn't have to worry too much about finding shade to paint from.  After walking around for awhile I settled on the view from the tree-lined walk which looked across the roses to the fountain and Science Center building.  The fountain.  I've avoided painting fountains which is a problem in transparent watercolor.  Since I had my gouache with me I decided to just paint the watercolor, not worry about the fountain, and I could put the white water in last with gouache, which is opaque.  I had fun with it and like the result!

   

Natural History Museum, old entrance.

My view in the opposite direction, the USC main campus.

Space!

On one of my early plein air paint-outs with the group we met at Griffith Observatory (opened in 1935) in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA.  We meet early in the day and the Observatory doesn't open until noon so I thought we would be about the only people there.  Wrong!  Besides lots of hikers, dog walkers, deliveries, and the school busses of kids, there were several television news crews doing live reports.  It turned out to be the height of the March solar storms.  Since they can disrupt technology on Earth, the news crews were there to report on possible power and GPS outages, and airline flight rerouting.

I stayed out of the reporters' way and set up where there was a nice view to try for my watercolor.  I'm posting my painting (9"x12" with a narrow border), and a photo of my view.  I also got a nice shot of a fellow painter just finishing up her oil of the hillside and rooftops.  And I'm thrilled about the last photo treat which you'll have to read about below!

I'm so happy Aaron Kiely gave me permission to post his photo here!  It is by far my favorite of the hundreds of shots I saw of the space shuttle Endeavour's final flight over Los Angeles landmarks on September 21, 2012.  What a gorgeous and dramatic photo of the planes!  The sharp Observatory in the foreground with the crowds, and hazy downtown Los Angeles in the distance...Love it.
Thank you Aaron!