What happens in Vegas, comes back in a suitcase

I went to Vegas to paint. I hadn't been there in a long while. I wanted to paint new housing developments and figured there would be a lot of them. Well I didn't know what I'd find.

I first went to Vegas as a kid, with Mom and my sister, Jeanne, after "our" divorce. We always called it "our" divorce for some reason, when my stepfather got divorced. We had been in Reno for 3 months, then San Francisco, then LA and then back to Nevada.

Mom stopped at the Tropicana or some hotel to see if we could get Harry Belafonte tickets. It was sold out. However while she was in there, Harry Belafonte came out and talked to Jeanne and I sitting in the car.

We ended up at the Saharan and we smuggled the poodle into the room. We ended up seeing Bob Newhart who was complained about a howling dog in the room across from him. Oops. Anyhow, Mom passed recently and I also went there to think about her and life.

I stayed at the Venetian as I heard there were gondolas and wanted to see it. A pastiche in typical Vegas style but I really loved some parts, especially this floor. My room was lovely. I was checked in by the hotel manager and thought I might be able to paint on premises but it was so crowded that I never did that.

I was utterly fascinated by this parking garage across the way and wanted to paint that.

I had a cool rental car and the first day drove out east to have a look at it. I was desperate to find a view in this crappy suburb but it took some time. It was Thanksgiving and wanted a place where no one could see me out there, alone, when I should have been in some dining room. I felt ashamed, a bit, though there was really no where else I would rather have been. The weather was just perfect.

On Friday I drove the other way and found a nice view of a housing development and mountains behind a sound wall from a parking lot of a closed church. There were sound walls everywhere, possibly the defining characteristic of Vegas views.

I was going in and out of Target for pee breaks. Target is great for landscape painters as the bathrooms are always in the front in the same place and you can get in and out quickly. I also got hooked on this protein drink they carry which has something like 4 apples, 3 carrots and a bunch of other stuff in it. Oh and I guess I went in Ross and bought a belt and something else.

Since it was black friday I later went to an outlet mall which was mobbed. I wanted to do a night painting there but it really seemed too crowded, at least for my energy level. I did a bit of shopping leaving my dirty water and brushes sitting in the rental car.

I talked to my guitar player on the phone and he thought I was crazy not to get out into the desert. So on Saturday I went to red rocks. I got there late and went right to work next to the visitor center parking lot. No one bothered me. I have never painted the desert before and I am bad at mountains and nature in general so it didn't turn out that great. The image here is in progress. I reworked all the foreground later.

The light collapsed really early, everywhere I went, I guess because of the mountains. Around 3:30 it just sort of died, the shadows disappeared. And you can't paint outdoors once the light has completely changed, unless you are finishing from memory.

I had only a quick look at the actual red rocks but I had hiked on them many years ago. The thing is that I was there to paint and it takes a lot of time to find a view and then paint it.

On Sunday I decided a nice view of the crazy skyline would be good. I found a perfect spot, a bit too close but it had a perfect secluded parking spot and some SHADE. Just perfectly comfortable. A lady security guard came by and said it wasn't safe and didn't want me there. "People try to blow stuff up." I convinced her I would not blow up anything and I just needed another 40 minutes. She let me stay.

It went ok except when the light swung around the whole view changed and I had to just stop pretty much. The fatal mistake was my drawing was off. I didn't zoom out the scene enough. I didn't get enough of the skyline in (though to do so would make it all smaller) and it's just a lame painting.

I found another park on the map and headed for it. Found another Target for pee break and protein shake. Again parked next to the visitor's parking lot facing more mountains and more desert.

This painting went a bit better but I was trying to paint all the plants in the foreground and there were so many of them I just couldn't do them very well. The light died and I just stopped.

I went back to town and ran around a lot. Caesars lived up to the hype. Loved the Bellagio awnings and tile floors. Like some of the art deco touches in New York, NY (had to go there as a New Yorker!) What a crazy place. I spent a lot of money and not much to show for it but I did work very hard. I didn't gamble a cent!

sacramento river delta

Here I am painting alongside the Sacramento River -- (squinting) , holding my dirty hand up because I was painting in oils and it was covered wth paint.

This weekend I dropped a painting off to another juried show and then went to Sacramento to pick up a painting from a gallery (it bounced back via Fed Ex). The guys in the gallery were 'taking the piss' out of me for coming from San Francisco. Not sure why exactly.

I drove back along the river road looking for spots to paint. What a marvelous drive! The river--quite big--at times gets much larger. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the river and the bay. I want to visit the bay model again to study where I have been.

Near Sacramento I passed many new suburbs that were right alongside the river under the levee. You can scramble up the side and see bicyclists, dog walkers, runners and such going back and forth. Along with beautiful views. I can see what all the fuss is about. Schwartzenegger was worried about the safety of our water system and flooding in the event of an earthquake. I also passed many many foreclosure signs in these areas.

Once on route 160 I didn't see many places to pull over though there were some cars parked alongside--probably fishermen. Somewhere around Walnut Grove I took a side road that had a sign to some island. It didn't seem private; I followed a truck and some cars to get in there. The road on top of this levee was smaller and had very little traffic. The people in the house next to me said it was ok.

I painted in oil because it seems like a good idea in the heat. The painting came out sort of fuzzy. I had my usual brushes but couldn't get as detailed as with acrylics. But on the other hand I was definitely not overworking it and the colors are easier to grey out and make naturalistic.

About an hour into the painting a lady came by in an SUV and told me to move. It was her private land. She said I couldn't park on the road anyhow. I asked for 15 minutes which she granted. It seemed strange because usually people are so nice to me when I am painting. She apparently owns an island and has all these renters. Driving back to Route 160, I had a more careful look at the pavement ahead and could see that they had had some trouble with it. There were cracks and slumps and it went to one lane at one point. But on the other hand, it didn't look much different than the road I had been driving on for the last hour.

Now I get it that one should not park on levees. I did not realize this. I saw no signs. I guess it's a problem with the shoulder but it also seems odd that you can drive on them in the first place. In England's fen country the roads are beside and below the canals. Growing up in a New York suburb we didn't even know there were rivers. Now they have rivers and flooding, (We also had Canadian geese migrating twice a year. Now they are year-round residents.)

There were quite a few marvelous draw bridges along the way which I'd like to paint. Closer to home was an awesome view of Mt. Diablo from Rio Vista. The river there was enormous, really huge and powerful-looking, and I saw large signs saying "Notice" next to the pulloff areas. I couldn't read the small text. Where these no parking signs? There were lots of cars next to them.

Before I got to Antioch I suddenly had to go over this very high and very Disney'esque two-lane bridge and almost had a panic attack. I felt dizzy and disoriented by the walls on either side of my car. It was very narrow and very high (300 feet? 500 feet? thousands?). I had someone on my tail or otherwise I'd be going like 20 miles an hour. I was having flashbacks to bad experiences at Splash mountain and Great America rollercoasters. I will avoid that one in the future if at all possible.

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After I posted this I was lying in bed realizing that only crazy city people park on levees. I almost got up and took the blog down. We know potential employers find one's blog. Who will ever hire me if they read this? I who caused a crack in the levee and that the river will burst out and flood the house next to it and the orchard and cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the housing developments. Maybe there would be a cascade effect all the way down to Antioch and the stupid bridge would fall down. They would look for me and find my blog and charge me with 6 billion dollars of flood damage. And worse, I would never be able to live with conscience. All because a stupid New Yorker parked on the levee. They would pass new laws that no one is allowed to drive on the levee and construct a big fence around it for national security reasons.