Los Angeles Art Scene

I brought a small portfolio of night landscape prints to three galleries in Culver City last year. One said they'd follow up after a studio visit. That was nine months ago. The other two never responded to my initial email.

I get that astrophotography sits in a weird space for galleries. It's not traditional landscape, it's not fine art photography in the way most gallerists frame it. But the ghosting after a studio visit is what got under my skin. They came out, looked at the work, said genuinely thoughtful things about the printing and the compositions, then just vanished. No rejection, no "not the right fit," just silence.

I've heard Bergamot Station has a couple of spaces that still review unsolicited portfolios, but I don't know if that's actually true anymore or just residual reputation. And the consignment terms I've been quoted elsewhere in LA hover around 50%, which is a lot to give up on a print that required four hours of driving to Joshua Tree and six hours of exposure work.

Anybody working in photo or night landscape found a gallery in LA that actually communicates, even when the answer is no?

I applied to the Beverly Hills Art Show this spring mostly because the booth fee felt reasonable compared to some of the bigger fairs. Got in, set up my florals, had a genuinely lovely spot with good foot traffic. People stopped, complimented the work, took cards. I sold exactly one small piece the entire weekend.

Now I'm not complaining about the crowd. They were pleasant and engaged. But I kept overhearing "we're just here for the walk" and "love browsing on a Saturday." Which is fine, but that's a browsing audience, not a buying audience. Meanwhile, the print vendors next to me seemed to do steady business all day. Made me wonder if original paintings at a certain price point just don't move at these outdoor shows, or if I'm misjudging who actually attends.

I'm already eyeing the fall round. Someone talk me into it or out of it. Did original work sell for anyone else, or is it really a prints and cards situation?

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Pink Floyd Sampler

I applied to the Beverly Hills Art Show this spring with a set of large format prints, Joshua Tree starfields over rock silhouettes. Got in, paid the booth fee, showed up with everything framed and ready. Sold one small piece the entire weekend.

Most of the foot traffic felt like casual strollers, not collectors. Lots of compliments, almost no one willing to commit to a purchase. I talked to a few painters nearby and they had similar stories. One sculptor told me she's done it four times and only broke even once. The setting is gorgeous, I'll give it that, but gorgeous doesn't cover booth fees and two days of lost shooting time.

I'm wondering if the issue is the fair itself or if night photography just doesn't translate well in a daytime outdoor booth. Hard to appreciate a Milky Way core print when you're squinting in full sun.

Has anyone here had a genuinely good sales weekend at Beverly Hills, or is it more of a portfolio visibility play?

Went to Descanso Gardens on Tuesday right when they opened, and the camellia forest was still holding on with these deep, almost bruised pinks against all that green. I set up with my travel watercolors near the lilac garden and just painted small studies for three hours. No pressure, no plan, just tea in my thermos and whatever caught my eye.

The win: a woman walking by asked if I had prints, took my card, and actually emailed that night. That never happens to me. I paint too much and sell too little, so when someone stops and connects with the work right there in the place that inspired it, it feels different from a booth sale.

I know some of you paint plein air around LA regularly. Do you have a garden or green space that consistently gives you good painting sessions? I'm always looking for new spots before the heat sets everything to brown.

Go big or go home.. My artwork on a 31'x18' LED Wall..

Brought a small run of Milky Way core prints to the Melrose Trading Post last Sunday. I've shown work online for years but never set up at a market before, and honestly I wasn't sure anybody would stop for night sky stuff surrounded by vintage furniture and candle vendors.

A woman bought a 16x20 of a Joshua Tree silhouette, one I shot last spring when the core was just clearing the horizon. She said it reminded her of camping with her dad in the Mojave when she was a kid. That hit differently than any online sale I've had.

The booth fee was reasonable, foot traffic was solid by 10am, and nobody gave me grief about not having "LA themed" work. I'll probably go back next month.

Anyone else here done Melrose Trading Post for photography or prints? Curious how repeat weekends compare to the first one.

Every May I tell myself I'll be disciplined about it. Pick one composition, finish it, move on. And then the jacarandas along my street hit full bloom and suddenly I've got four wet canvases going and no counter space left for my tea.

This year feels especially vivid. I drove past the Huntington last week and the light filtering through those purple canopies was doing something I swear I've never seen before, almost lavender against that golden late afternoon haze. I sat in my car for ten minutes just staring. Came home and started painting number five.

I know I'm not the only one in LA who loses all productivity to this. The window is so short, maybe three or four weeks of peak color, and there's this panic to capture it before the sidewalks turn into that bruised purple carpet.

Anyone else deep in jacaranda mode right now, or is it just me and my too many half finished paintings?

Drove out to Joshua Tree last weekend for the first real core visibility window of the year. Got there around 10pm, and there were already a dozen headlamps wandering around Skull Rock. Someone had a full ring light going for portraits. In April.

I get it, the park is beautiful at night and more people want to see the sky. But the light pollution from other photographers is becoming a genuine problem out there. Two years ago I could set up at a pulloff along Park Boulevard and have clean darkness in every direction. Now I'm driving deeper into the backcountry roads just to avoid stray white light on the horizon.

For anyone else shooting the desert skies this spring and summer, are you still going to Joshua Tree or have you shifted to other spots? I've been spending more time toward Anza Borrego but even that's getting busier. Wondering if anyone has found a reliable dark site that isn't turning into a parking lot on new moon weekends.

Just got my acceptance for the Beverly Hills Art Show this spring and I'm already stressed about the logistics. Last time I did an outdoor show that size I was hauling wet canvases across a parking structure in Pasadena and praying nothing touched anything.

For those who've done Beverly Hills before, how early do you actually need to arrive for load in? I paint large sometimes (30x40 and up) and I'm trying to figure out if I can get my car close enough to my booth or if I'm hand carrying everything across Beverly Gardens Park. My station wagon is not exactly compact and I've heard the parking situation is its own little nightmare.

Also, did you need to show your CDTFA seller's permit at check in or just have it on file? I have mine but I always forget which events actually ask to see the physical copy.

Would love to hear how other painters handled the setup, especially if you're working with framed pieces that can't just be stacked.

Loaded my truck with six large framed night sky prints for the Beverly Hills Art Show last spring and spent 40 minutes circling for a spot that wouldn't require me to carry everything three blocks. Glass, aluminum frames, the whole setup. One bad bump on a dolly wheel and you're looking at a cracked mat or worse.

I've started building custom foam inserts for each piece, which helps with the drive but does nothing for the last 200 yards of pavement. The loading zones fill up fast and the window they give you is tight. I've heard some people rent hand trucks with pneumatic tires specifically for outdoor shows on uneven ground. That feels like overkill until you watch a print slide off a standard dolly.

For those of you doing any of the bigger outdoor fairs here, how do you handle the load in? Do you just show up absurdly early, or is there a better system I'm missing?

I've been hauling my easel to Descanso Gardens at least twice a month since February and the camellias right now are unreal. That whole stretch near the Japanese garden has this soft filtered light in the morning that I keep chasing from canvas to canvas. Honestly I paint too much there and drink too much tea in their little cafe, but that's beside the point.

What I really want to know is whether anyone else does plein air sessions out there, or if I'm just the lone weirdo with a French easel blocking the path. I'd love to have even a small group going, maybe Saturday mornings before it gets crowded. Split parking, compare notes on color mixing for all that pink and white.

Would anyone actually show up if I picked a date? Not trying to organize a whole thing, just want painting company and maybe someone to tell me my greens are too yellow.

I've been thinking about organizing a group shoot out near Joshua Tree or the Mojave for anyone who works after dark. Astrophotography, night landscapes, long exposures, whatever your thing is. The idea would be to carpool from LA, set up together, and actually talk through what we're doing while we wait for frames to finish.

Most of us who drive out to dark sky sites end up alone at 2 AM next to our rigs, which is fine, but I've learned more from the few times I've been next to someone else shooting than from years of solo trips. Seeing how another person reads the sky, what they prioritize in a composition, when they decide the Milky Way core is positioned right. That kind of exchange doesn't happen on a forum.

New moon weekend in July would be ideal. Three to four hour window of real darkness before astronomical twilight starts.

Anyone in LA who shoots at night and would be interested in something like this? Even if you've never done it, the learning curve out there is fast when you're with people who can help you dial in settings on site.

I just finished a batch of garden pieces for the Beverly Hills Art Show and realized my usual framer in Culver City has a three week wait. Three weeks. For eight small florals. I almost cried into my tea.

I've been spoiled by quick turnarounds for years, and now every framer I call is either backed up or has raised prices so much I'm second guessing whether to frame at all. I do simple white or natural wood floater frames, nothing complicated, so it feels like this shouldn't be this hard.

Anybody have a reliable framer on the Westside or even into the Valley who can turn things around in under two weeks without charging more than the painting is worth? I'm also open to buying direct and doing my own float mounts if someone knows a good local source for the hardware. I used to grab supplies at Blick on La Cienega but their frame selection has gotten thin.

Who's your go to right now?

8''x10'' acrylic pour, swirl and spin..

I've been getting more requests for big prints of my night landscape work, 40x60 and up, and my usual printer in the Arts District just told me they're scaling back their large format services. Frustrating timing.

For anyone doing dark, high dynamic range images, you know the challenge. A print that holds detail in deep shadows without crushing everything to black is not trivial. The file can be perfect and the print can still lose the faint nebulosity or the gradient from astronomical twilight into true dark. I need someone local who will actually do a test strip and talk through ink limits with me, not just hit print.

I've heard a couple names in Culver City and one place near Bergamot Station but nothing firsthand for this kind of work. Anyone printing large format night photography or similarly dark, wide tonal range images in LA? Especially curious if you've found someone who gets the shadow end right without you having to babysit every proof.

I got an inquiry last week from a boutique hotel near Culver City wanting a series of floral panels for their lobby. Big canvases, spring palette, lush garden scenes. Right up my alley. Then they mentioned their budget and I nearly dropped my tea.

They wanted four 36x48 paintings for what I'd normally charge for one. And of course they framed it as "great exposure" because their clientele is "very art forward." I'm not new to this but I genuinely don't know what the going rate is for other painters doing similar commission work around here. I paint a lot (too much, honestly) but most of my sales have been at the Beverly Hills Art Show or through my own site, not hotel or designer commissions.

For those of you doing commission work for local businesses, restaurants, or hotels, what are you actually charging per piece at this scale? Is the "exposure" pitch just standard now or are some of these clients paying real money?

Got approached last month by a boutique hotel near the DTLA Arts District wanting to carry a few of my night sky prints on consignment. The terms were rough. They wanted 55% and framed it like they were doing me a favor by putting my work in front of "high net worth guests."

I shoot long exposure landscapes out in the Mojave and Joshua Tree, so the production side already costs me real money before I even get to printing. Gas, permits, sometimes a second night when clouds roll in. A single finished piece can represent 10+ hours of work across multiple sessions. When someone offers consignment terms that leave me with less than half, it's hard to see how the math works.

I turned it down, but it made me wonder what other LA artists are actually accepting for hotel and commercial consignment deals. Are 50/50 splits the norm here, or are people pushing for better? Curious what the going rate looks like for anyone who's done this in the city.

I keep seeing the LA County Arts Commission put out calls for individual artist grants, and every cycle I tell myself I'll apply this time. Then I stare at the application, wonder if floral painting is "community engaged" enough, and quietly close the tab while making another cup of tea.

But I genuinely want to know if anyone here has gone through the process and come out the other side with funding. The language in those RFPs always feels like it's aimed at installation or public art, not someone who paints garden paths and tulip rows. I know a few painters at the Brewery Art Colony who've tried, and the consensus seems to be that the selection panels lean heavily toward social practice and multimedia work.

Am I reading the room wrong, or is there a real bias in how these local grants shake out? If you've applied, even unsuccessfully, I'd love to hear what the experience was actually like.