Los Angeles River Series #13 (2019)

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The Los Angeles River near the downtown city center is vast and broad. In this area, barricades, chain link fences and railroad yards limit public access. Entry to the river (for scofflaws) still can happen via climbing through fence holes and scrambling down a five-foot concrete wall. Passage is definitely not ADA compliant and, for safety reasons, best considered in the bright light of daytime during the dry season when river flows are minimal.

The reward for such an excursion is entry into a brilliant world of whiteness and solitude where manmade materials and architectural elements prevail. One is alone in an engineered reality with little company except perhaps marsh birds and a few homeless. It is quiet, vast and peaceful. This would not be called beautiful by most standards, but for some reason it inspires awe and perhaps a bit of fear of the immense forces that this infrastructure was constructed to constrain. 

Los Angeles River #13 depicts such a scene. From near the Arts District, looking south into the sun, stand the columns, arches and substructures of the Fourth Street and Seventh Street Bridges, the Santa Monica Freeway and several train trestles: These huge monuments of concrete elevate speeding cars, trains and passers-by unaware of the scene below.

I first completed and posted this painting to social media on January 12, 2019. Shortly thereafter my daughter Chelsea Kosta, also a fine artist, suggested improvements that I took to heart and incorporated into the painting which was reposted on January 16. While not obvious to me when I made these finishing touches, I was in fact becoming aware of some concepts of Tonalism as used by fine artists such as James Abbott Whistler and William Turner: Particularly in their later works, they used simplified composition and limited details and palate to convey emotion. It can take years to develop the knowledge and techniques to effectively use these principles, but a greater consciousness of their importance was being born within me. Los Angeles River #13 revealed the possibilities that this new style might bring to my paintings, and this approach was Tonalism.

If you are interested in this painting, you can view more details in the Store. If you would like to learn more about the City of Los Angeles' River Project, explore the links below.

More on the Los Angeles Revitalization Project

City of Los Angeles River Revitalization Project