Saturday, March 9, 2013

Urban River 5

 "LA River #3"
oil on panel, 2013
2" x 2⅜" (5.08cm x 6.01cm)
private collection

Here's another for my Urban River series, although on a small scale at only 2" x 2⅜". Not really sellable but I do have my reasons for painting these mini's.
This is the LA River in Long Beach California looking north at the Willow Street Bridge. Viewed laying down on the sloping concrete bank makes for a strong angular composition and a nice sweeping line from corner to corner. With landscapes typically being in a horizontal format I am always looking for verticals, and especially angles to either counter or compliment the side to side landscape.

I used a similar compositional device in this locomotive painting, making the subject, here the bridge and the BNSF engine in the other, smaller within the design yet still the primary subject.

The sloping wall takes up more than half of the picture frame but due to its architecture the bridge gets the attention. This also lends a good variation to the blue sky shapes in the arches so each is different and is not so repetitive.210

4 comments:

  1. "La River 3" rocks David!
    It is amazing you can get all this wonderful visual excitement on such a small surface! Wow!
    Great decision on the composition! The angles of the concrete bank bring my eyes right to the bridge! Nice to enjoy over and over again!
    The blues are beautiful! For some reason, not sure why, "Deep greens and blues art the colors I choose!" (James Taylor)
    Bravo buddy!
    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Michael,
    These tiny ones are fun and challenging to do. It's like making cupcakes instead of a big cake!
    Keep painting...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pretty cool painting-I like the strong diagonal in foreground and the bridge shapes in the back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Stephanie,
      Thank you and thanks for visiting. This is a series, urban rivers, and I plan to do more, especially some that are significantly larger. This is what I see every day.

      Delete