paintings > street lights
Teale Hatheway is known for her intimate paintings of old street lights scattered across our cities. This blue and black lantern is from her first series of urban light paintings on paper. It depicts the classic lanterns, dotting the North Broadway 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.
This particular lantern may be called the four globe Llewelyn, although the five globe version was more common. More significantly, these lanterns decorate the bridge which crosses the birth cradle of Los Angeles.
The artist hand cut stencils, over which she atomized india ink on cold pressed watercolor paper. The fanciful blue colors were added with watercolor and the shimmery lights were emphasized with gold leaf.
Another painting of the North Broadway Bridge can be seen here.