A River of Art For hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish, the Los Angeles River provided water and food for the Gabrielino Indians. In 1769, the members of the Gaspar de Portolà expedition settled on the banks of the river and named it El Río de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciúncula: The River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula. It was known as the Porciuncula River.

Today, after a change of course or two, the Los Angeles River runs 51 miles from the west end of the San Fernando Valley to its mouth in Long Beach, mostly encased in concrete because of the river's tendency to flood. In recent years there has been a movement to safely remove the concrete and to restore the vegetation, and hence the wildlife, to a more natural environment.

Saturday evening BG and I attended the opening reception for Carole Garland's exhibit at TAG (The Artists' Gallery 2903 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404) with the Los Angeles River as her theme.

As a member of the Culver City Art Group, I have watched the development of Carole's art for some time. She just keeps on getting better and better, and I feel like now she has really hit her stride. I believe the point at which somebody crosses over from being merely a painter to an artist in their own right is when a distinguishable style emerges—and that point has definitely been reached by Carole. I like her soft, impressionistic style immensely.

The painting above (although not strictly the LA River, as its subject is the Wetlands) is a beautiful example of her style. The colors and layout are perfectly harmonious.

The exhibit runs through August 15. Swim on over there.
(Photos copyright roslyn m wilkins.)

Evening's Light Not Yet Gone
Yesterday I was watching a documentary on Georgia O'Keeffe. I enjoy renting artists' biographies from NetFlix, both artists I have never heard of before or don't know much about, and artists whose work I am very familiar with, as there is always something new to learn. For instance, I knew O'Keeffe's eyesight was failing, but I didn't realize she had no central vision, only peripheral vision, caused by macular degeneration, for almost the last twenty years of her life, but she managed to continue working. (She died in 1986 at the age of 98.)
The reason I thought of Georgia O'Keeffe is because I learned from this video that one of her teachers did not believe in the method of copying the old masters to learn how to paint. (I'm sure some art historian out there can tell this story better than I can...) To paraphrase really badly, he told her that to create artwork that anybody could paint, is not art... that REAL art comes from your own vision... from within. I couldn't agree more.
One standard for judging art that I hear over and over again is "Wow, what a great painting, it looks just like a photograph!" In my opinion this is not a compliment. If that's the case, why not hang the darn photograph on the wall and done with it! In 1609 painting a scene as if it was real life was a worthy ambition. But in 2009 we have things called cameras for that! I love landscapes but I really don't care about an artist's technical ability to draw or paint a plant or a mountain (unless it's done to illustrate a technical publication, then please, make it look as realistic as possible.)
When I look at a landscape painting (or any kind of artwork) I am looking for the artist's own interpretation. Georgia O'Keeffe was certainly a master at that.
Lately I've been following Katherine Keane's journey through landscape painting. To call her works landscapes is probably a misnomer. "Mystical-scapes" would be a better description. Of that ouevre, I believe her latest painting, "Evening's Light Not Yet Gone," is her best. Although I have liked all her paintings in this series, some in the past have been somewhat dark and mysterious. (Or perhaps I was going through a dark, mysterious patch in my own life, trying to figure out some things about myself, and that's how I interpreted them.... but to me, that's what art is all about, the artist's take on life and then the viewer's take on what the artist is conveying... oh, it gets complicated!). One of the reasons I like Katherine's paintings is that they always tell a story... for me, they bring to mind some of Ray Bradbury's tales like "The October Country."
Anyway, the bottom line is I really love this new painting. I had the opportunity to admire it at the TAG show last night (which runs through January 31). This is no "photographic" painting. Katherine's emotion and personal style come through loud and clear. In the painting, I see the storm clouds clearing away. What was a cold, rainy, turbulent day has become a calm, peaceful setting with the sun breaking through just in time to shed some light and warmth on the scene before it disappears into the dark night. I have no idea what the artist intended, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
As an ending note, I must mention that I always enjoy the shows at TAG (see links above for more info). There were several other pieces that caught my attention and I woke up this morning thinking about them. But you will have to attend the show yourself and figure out which ones those are (they might surprise you, but you will never know for sure.............!).