From Boston in the VPO to Santa Monica, California in A Day Not Wasted. I feel like such a traveler this month!
Once again Lee posted one of his fabulous photographs as a reference. This one is a piece of Santa Monica that features both the colorful housing they have but also the Santa Monica Pier. I cropped to a vertical composition and decided to feature both the houses in the front with the amusement rides on the pier in the back. I went with "shapes" for painting and really enjoyed "coloring" each block or shape with the various colors.
I kept things as simple as I could since I thought the scene itself was a bit busy, so no sailboats in the background and no one is on the sand/beach either. I like to think it is early morning with the sun rising, and people are not up and about yet.
It was quite a long time ago when I was last in California (1983 I believe was the year when I lived there). Wish I could say I lived in someplace like Santa Monica, but I was more inland. Still, if you have a car in California (& quite frankly you couldn't survive without one) you can travel to all the hot spots as often as you wish. Of course, first you have have to master the freeways! (5 lanes split into 3 & 2, suddenly I was going to Pasadena but I really wanted to go to Ventura!).
It was an interesting lifestyle out in California - one that is quite different from the Northeast that I am use to. I must admit, the weather in California was very inviting, and it was rather nice to just plan a weekend event & not worry if the weather was going to cooperate. Odds are, it would. It is also more relaxed than the East Coast, more laid-back as the expression goes. About the only thing I didn't like in California was when the earth shook - 1 earthquake, and not a major one, was enough to make me second guess my permanent residency. Guess I'd rather face an East Coast hurricane than a West Coast earthquake! LOL!
Acrylic on 9x12 canvas
6 comments:
The pink. The pink of that row house just does me in. Love this!
Beautiful use of color. It's always very refreshing to see how you interpret color. Love the splash of pink!
Belle profondeur dans cette peinture... Bises
Love the color blocks, Nancie! The pink and blue house is marvelous!
I enjoyed reading about your stay in California. We lived there for five years and experienced a mild earthquake. I was too young to realize how dangerous they can really be. But now, I agree that I'd rather dodge a hurricane.
This came out beautifully, Nancie!!
Very well done Nancie, a lot of happy colors.
Post a Comment