"Four L.A. River Trains" is 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas. This area of Los Angeles, just east of downtown, is a world of continuous inspiration for my work. I made an effort to keep the color quiet in this piece, using a limited palette. The foreground trains are rich in darker/warmer contrast to the milky haze of the atmosphere in the receding cooler background. I like the way that those trains are all converging together at this point to make it under the bridge, those tracks they follow help make for a rather interesting composition.
11 comments:
Lot of nice work here Tony You discribed what I might have said so well I'll just say Kudos!
This area of LA is so interesting to me, I love seeing the paintings you do of it! Great composition, you have total control over where I'm looking in this. Very graphic, very powerful!
As soon as I saw this my mind flashed to Edward Hopper. Love this stark, urban image of my old hometown.
Thanks Bill! Now I can add one more piece to the LA River School of Painting's archives!
Hi Kim, thanks! Every time I go to this area, I think I'll have trouble gleaning anything else out of it... yet every time it offers something new and different.
David,
Seeing that Hopper retrospective in Chicago last year definitely had a poverful influence on me. Having read Gail Levin's biography on Edward Hopper gave me some good insight into his subtle psychological approach to a given subject. I felt I was able to look deeply into those paintings at his show.
Ah, that hazy L.A. afternoon light! Great stuff.
awesome tony~ this one really feels special to me, since in my "lost" days, I lived around there. just east of downtown, 1st and mission, across the street from Aliso Village (is that even there anymore?) Lying in my lumpy mattress in a cinderblock box of an apartment, all I hear at night are the scurrying of rats, gunshots, and sirens.
Ahh... those were the days...
Thanks Eric, wish I lived closer, we could hang.
Hey Terry, much appreciated! Yeah, that area would be a sketchy place to live... too many bums. My wife and I considered moving into an artist's loft down there, but we couldn't justify paying that kind of money and smelling urine as soon as we stepped outside to the human wasteland out on the street.
Now when you refer to your "lost" days, is that before you found Jesus, or an existential reference to your work at the time? I recall your paintings 10 years ago, I thought they were awesome. I was working with Richard Bunkall, there was a noticeable influence of his on your stuff.
Great job go ahead..
Thanks for sharing...
___________________
Andrew
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