Sunday, April 25, 2010

Rancho La Brea


"To Live and Die in L.A."
acrylic on panel
11" X 14"

Downtown Los Angeles, the last Ice Age. Sometimes disguised by a thin layer of water, leaves or other debris, asphalt seeps through the ground from deep within the earth under southern California. Unsuspecting large grazing animals searching for a drink or stumbling too near would become trapped, like flies to fly paper. A few inches of asphalt would be able to hold an animal as large a Mammoth or Mastodon (pictured). The animals would die from dehydration or exposure. The stench of the dead would attract scavengers and predators from miles around, who would also become trapped. For every one herbivore six predator remains have been found. Most Commonly the Dire Wolf (pictured). 

7 comments:

Chogrin said...

Shades of Red, bright.... I'm really into this one. That ribcage and those vultures really bring me in.

Murderous T Stabwell said...

jesus, this one's an epic. there's a really wide variety of big successes in here. love the color scheme and all the anatomy looks spot on as always. and joe's right that rub cage is stellar.

i could be crazy but i kind of feel like that blue bird (crow?) down at the bottom left is breaking the nice circular composition you have going. feel free to disagree with me though, it's a nitpick anyway.

hell of a piece

Anonymous said...

heres what worries me and is something i struggle with and think about a lot. If you were actually witnessing this scene things would be all over the place in really no type of order, so i guess in order to make a successful nature picture, i think i have to make the composition work and also at the same try to make everything seem not so placed which is a hard thing to do, i think the bird breaks that placement up just enough. its small enough to make your eye break away for a split second, to take some thing else in on the over all path of your eye.

Anonymous said...

nah, that bird... something about the color, it's the first thing my eye goes to, but for some reason it works in my worm addled brain. almost makes it more unsettling, like... sure, some vultures and wolves could fuck me up, but what's that bird doing...HEY BIRD...WHATTRYA DOING OVER THERE?...DON'T YOU SEE THOSE WOLVES?!?...HEY BIRD...

-sam

Murderous T Stabwell said...

looking at it gain, you're right, it wouldn't work at all if this looked too neat and orderly. i think your intent totally justifies it.

Eric Braddock said...

This is awesome, man... quite the epic piece indeed! I saw this posted on facebook but haven't been over this way in a few days, so much is happening in this, absolutely beautiful.

Anonymous said...

frackin' amazing paintings and story arcs you've been doing - very inspiring! especially love the unified play between large and small shapes, and variety of brush work.

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