Sketching Los Angeles Palm Trees, January 22, 2011

Manhattan Beach Blvd., Los Angeles

Los Angeles Palms

I’m in the midst of a fabulous four-day conference in Los Angeles.  I’m training for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program which will be coming to my high school in 2012.  After the conclusion to today’s sessions, I took the trolley from the Sheraton Gateway Hotel near the LAX airport to Manhattan Beach, with about an hour of sun left.  After struggling with a row of storefronts, I decided to abandon the architectural sketches and see if I could generate something with a row of palm trees along the boulevard.

I was thinking of the principles of painting expounded by the 6th-century Chinese historian Xie He.  I’m not sure that I’m translating his ideas correctly, but from #1 and #3 I have come up with this idea of trying to capture the essence, of the subject under scrutiny.  I only had about ten minutes of daylight left when I began these two watercolor sketches, but I think by working quickly I was able to get more quality onto the page than I did with my first palm tree attempt yesterday at poolside.  Hopefully tomorrow I can give it one more try before returning to Texas.  The attempt I found very rewarding, the sun was pleasant, and the breeze coming off the Pacific was scintillating, to say the least.

Thanks for reading.

Tags: Chinese brushwork, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, ocean, Pacific, palm fronds, palm trees, watercolor palms, watercolor sketch