Draw-In at the L.A. Air Force Base

Despite the efforts to blend into the landscapes they painted, these artists could not help but stand out against the endless gray office-scape. As they sat along the edge of the sidewalk, a passerby in his truck pulled over, handed out his business card and asked the artists for their services to design illustrations for his decorative stone business.

Each had their own favorite medium - watercolor, indian ink, charcoal, and ballpoint pen. While plein air painting in the traditional sense was not their priority, the artists, such as Susan Silton, kept busy with observing, translating, and sketching - the same exercises plein air artists at the turn of the century took in order to portray their subject.

Poets Diane Ward and Jane Sprague recited original poetry, followed by a reading about both the base and adjacent defense contractor Northrup Gruman by organizers Hillary Mushkin and Robby Herbst. The only interruption was a confrontation by the Air Force Police, who questioned but were unable to verify the legality of this gathering. They certainly had procedures for dealing with protestors, but not with this odd situation--neither party was confrontational, and the officers seemed genuinely interested, standing their in solitude as the artists continued to paint and draw.

With the series Incendary Traces, Hillary Mushkin explores the likeness of landscape portraiture to war imagery, such as Los Angeles' palm trees to news footage of Baghdad during Desert Storm. Robby Herbst and his collective "Llano del Rio", has been mapping public and private locations, particularly national defense sites such as this air force base for the upcoming book, "An Antagonists Guide To Jerks and A*holes In LA." Both hope to continue this as a monthly series. So stay tuned for next year!