Southwest Museum

What a nice morning for painting with friends!  We met at the historic Southwest Museum.  The museum was founded by Charles Lummis whose fabulous stone house I painted last month, pictured in my post "Lummis House".  This was the first museum in Los Angeles.  It was constructed on a hillside next to the Arroyo Seco Valley from 1912-1914, and was established to study the native people of the Southwest and preserve artifacts.  The building is spectacular with its tower, and reflects several styles of architecture.  Today, most artifacts have been moved and the building is being renovated, hopefully to fully reopen in the future.  

The view of the museum tower from the parking area is the back on the north side.  Since it's on a hillside, other views are a little difficult.  I had in mind to paint the tower and hillside shadows in cooler colors.  With a view across the valley to the hills to the east, I would paint that warmer.  I'll post my watercolor, and photo of the tower from near my viewpoint looking east.  In September I took a photo of the museum from the opposite hillside looking west.  I'm also sharing one of the interesting plaques we saw, and a photo I ran across of an old streetcar heading north below the museum.  The streetcars are long gone.