Sketch of the Week: Down by the River

Even though most people think of beaches when waterways in Los Angeles are mentioned, this city has a real river that run through it for centuries - it's just that most of it has been lined with concrete after 1930s. Some of the concrete bottom broke over the years from water pressure and parts of the river have gone back to natural bottoms: nature is taking over despite human intervention.

For the first time, a naturally-bottomed section of Los Angeles River in Elysian Valley opened to the public for summer recreation (more information about the area is here). I attended the opening ceremony with my photographer friend Jason Sanqui. I sketched while he was shooting some photos. Here are the color guards standing ready with the flags before the event began.

After the ribbon-cutting, I went down by the bank. Even though freeways and a railroad track is close to the river - it is right in the middle of the city, after all - there is an incredible amount of greenery by the river. People were allowed to kayak, so it was fun to paint pops of orange boats among the blues and greens of the river.