NEW Paintingsby Steven John Koeppe
All paintings are available for sale unless noted as part of a collection.
The Getty Center Seriesby Steven John KoeppeBesides being home to a world-class art collection, the Getty Center is also an architectural masterpiece. On a clear day, visitors enjoy the most panoramic views on the Westside. Looking east you see the Hollywood Sign, and far beyond the L.A. basin, the San Jacinto mountains above Palm Springs. Toward the Westide, Santa Monica Bay, Catalina Island and the Santa Monica Mountains frame the Pacific Ocean. It's a great place to take a break from viewing the Getty's fine collections. I've found it's also a wonderful subject for painting. I was fortunate to be invited to visit the Getty Center midway during construction and took several pictures. A few of this series are based on those pictures. I intend to revisit those locations soon and re-capture them as they appear today.
The World Cruisers, built by Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, are shown departing March 17, 1924 for their 1924 voyage around our planet. The first circumnavigation by airplane took 69 stops and 363 hours in flight averaging just 72.5 miles per hour and covered 26,345 miles in 175 days. By the time they had returned to Seattle (the official departure point,) only 2 aircraft survived. #1, The Seattle, crashed into a mountain in Alaska. #3, The Boston, was lost to engine troubles in the North Atlantic. Unbelievably, all crew members survived their ordeal. #2, The Chicago, is displayed in the Pioneers of Flight gallery at the National Air and Space Museum. #4, The New Orleans, is undergoing restoration at Santa Monica Airport. The World Cruisers electrified interest about the future potential of aviation. I intend to use this art for my 2009 Dada Calendar.
I spotted the first puffs of smoke as I drove east along Santa Monica (Old Route 66), on the way to pick up a big print job in Hollywood. By the time I'd loaded a few hundred pounds of post cards into my VW Beetle the fire had clearly gotten out of hand. With all that extra weight in my car I decided it was no time to be chasing fires; I went directly home. The cover photo from the next morning's L.A. Times inspired this painting. As it turned out, the fire had been started by a couple troublesome teens visting from the midwest.
These are studies of Disney Hall, the Frank Gehry designed concert hall which serves as the home of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and RED CAT Theatre. They were painted from photographs I took before attending a "New Music" concert. Oddly enough, my camera was confiscated after I took a picture of the interior before the concert. (They did give it back afterward and, yes, I also plan to paint from an interior photo.)
This work was inspired by a vintage photo of Morro Rock, in Morro Bay, California, taken in 1934. It appears to have been taken near where the Embarcadero is now located.
Acrylic on canvas, 36"x72", by Steven John Koeppe, 2005
Looking back across Whaler's Cove toward the Carmel Valley from the end of Pt. Lobos, that's the Carmel Mission beyond the bluffs at left. It's a wonder that this place has been preserved for posterity, unlike Monterey's 17 mile drive, just to the north.
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