Day 4 LA

 Early start today. Driving to the dessert to go watch military planes practice. Driving out of the city is Mulholland Drive like from the movie.

Watching the scenery turn green to dessert.

A 3.5 hoursish drive we made it.

Parked the car at the edge of a cliff it was super windy and not nearly as hot as I thought it would be.

I love the colour and textures of the dessert I may just have to use these reference shots for a painting someday.

We saw 4 planes total in our 2 hour visit. Half of them came by when we happened to be eating our packed sandwiches so we didn't get good pictures. These are the best ones. I coloured another Spooky Astronaut Drawing in the car while we waited, I'll post it later.

The pretty drive back.

Back home now recharging all my batteries. My art show opening in the area is tomorrow so that's pretty neat!

Mountain Family feat. The Spooky Astronauts Drawing Club

Mountain Family digital drawing 2018

There's a new drawing out by the art band. Coloured by Spooky Astronaut Thomas Jefferson and drawn by a number of different Spacemen, it contains a number of seeing eye dunes. Very surreal and sort of reminds me of this drive I went on today (see next post). 

LA Day 3

Been taking a billion photos, I'm a day late here already. I'll update and make a full album later, maybe paste it to my Facebook or something with more personal photos. I wanted to round out my blog a bit with more stuff so here's the snippy, sort of on time version. 

Energy levels dipped on this day, slept in a bit but out by early morning. WINDY DAY. Went for another drive, I love seeing how palm trees sway.

Quick visit to pick up supplies for tomorrow's trip, what could we be up to?? Stay tuned to find out!  This place was like a Sports Check or a cheap MEC.

Did a drive by and had to make an emergency stop!

Sculpture out front caught our eye, these photos are from Nat.

String of food trucks out front across the street.

These were delicious. Like the McDonald's mcchicken but way better. The chicken was juicy, the crunch was crisp (not hard) and the fries came with a spicy kick you could cool down with the garlic mayo. Both crispy pickle and lettuce was delightfully noticeable, yum.

Waiting for my chicken sandwich.

In the museum's park, an Alex Calder. 

Screen actor's guild.

Going hunting at their 24 hour grocery. Fruit taste better here and not so dinged up or dried out by the time it reaches cold Canada.

Took a short painting break in-between afternoon and sundown. I'll make a separate post on this later. Made a dinner and took a walk around the neighbourhood and came across the cute little movie theatre.

Ended the night passed out on the couch watching HEAT : )

Happy Pet Day (Belated)

Giant Kitten acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2014 In private collection.

Happy Pet Day has got me thinking about this painting.

LA Day 2

Day 2 of the trip, energy levels still high. Morning afternoon was spent exploring the downtown core by car and on foot, pretty nice! Of interesting to note, LA has it's own down and out folks too, mostly segregated on this 1 slummy street is what I observed. Late afternoon I took a painting break before heading off to the Griffiths Park Observatory via Sunset Blvd.

Here's where my day began:

Just driving by.

VIP behind the scenes tour of a screen printing shop! NEAT

Peeping on a pricey Pollock at the MOCA LA 

Weird sculpture, the radio hanging plays music, by a native Californian.

The BROAD art museum.

Looks like a Gehry alright.

The shoot out scene from the movie HEAT.

Ice cream truck has a vegan option.

Giant strange plant.

Painting break, I got my travel size temporary studio set up in here.

The round brush with pointed tip is the most versatile of all the brushes in my opinion. It can do tiny contours with the tip and large fill ins with the stalk. Stick me on a deserted island and the round tip brush is the paintbrush I would choose. First coat has begun, clear blue skies throughout.

As the sun went down we took a drive down Sunset Blvd. Pretty flashy, got sleazier towards the edge the further along you go.

The Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd., the same night the owner died..

Griffiths Park Observatory, my favourite destination of the day. Inside is a giant pendulum, a replica science experiment that proves earth rotates on an axis. 

Look at that view! Just 1 of several many. We may have to come back, you can see the HOLLYWOOD sign from here but it was too dark at this time.