"Behind the Dam"
9"x12"
Oil on linen

There are so many places around that I never explored until I started painting outdoors.  Well, sure, I'd drive by some of them, but I didn't really SEE them.  In fact, when I first began taking a plein air class years ago with Karl Dempwolf we went places in this city where I have lived my entire life that I had never seen before.  It made me realize how little I really had seen of my own city.

Painting outdoors has also opened up my own nearby neighborhoods.  Never before would I hike behind the bushes and rows of trees to go down to the dam.  On Tuesday I went with Lani Emanuel once again to explore.   I am trying to capture some urban scenes and wanted to get another opportunity to paint the Sepulveda Dam.  I had gone down into the basin once before last spring [see HERE or HERE], but since then have been warned numerous times by my friends that painting by myself in areas like this is foolish.  Lani painted the view looking toward the dam but I turned away from the dam and painted the Burbank bridge.

There was plenty of water flowing, but it is still hard to imagine that the entire area is totally underwater during LA's short rainy season.  In fact, I remember one year a few years back when a fire truck got stranded on that bridge while it was standing by to rescue anyone swept downstream by the fast rushing water.  The water rose so quickly the fire truck was unable to leave since the bridge was "high" ground.

Lani and I tried to go down the side of the water that I had gone in the spring but the water was higher and neither of us wanted to walk through the muck.  So we backtracked and went back across the bridge and down on the the other side.   It was a beautiful day ... actually almost hot.   Although they say it might rain tomorrow... Tuesday was sunny in Southern California.

I had LOTS OF GREAT NEWS over the weekend.  Ill let you know all about it in an upcoming post.