paintings > street lights
Teale Hatheway is known for her intimate paintings of old street lights scattered across our cities. This yellow, black and white lantern is from her first series of urban light paintings on paper. It depicts the ornate, Spanish lanterns, evenly spaced across the 4th Street Bridge, over the Los Angeles River. Teale was in the midst of studying the LA River Bridges for a series of more complex architectural paintings, when she became enamored with the beautiful, jewel-like quality of these small, urban details.
These particular lights are iconic symbols in the ever-changing Los Angeles Arts District. Beyond just the roadway, they light staircases and walking paths up to and along the bridge.
The artist hand cut stencils, over which she atomized india ink on cold pressed watercolor paper. The fanciful yellow color was added with watercolor and the shimmery lights were emphasized with gold leaf. Another painting of the 4th Street Bridge, on linen, can be seen here.