Hermosa Beach Construction, 2026 by Ray Patrick — original gouache painting — 2026.003.003

Subject

A corner building under construction, its ground floor wrapped in dark green hoarding. White vans stand at the kerb, a utility pole rises through the centre, and a bank of cumulus builds behind the roofline.

Composition

The building runs diagonally from the right edge back to the left, meeting a broad empty road that takes up the bottom third. Power lines cross the sky in five long diagonals, tying the top of the picture together where the cloud would otherwise float free.

Palette

Ultramarine sky against lilac and white cloud; the building is a deep bottle green, the road a warm grey. The parked vans are the only pure whites below the skyline.

Handling

Architecture built from flat blocks of colour with no outline, the windows single dark dabs. The power lines and the pole are drawn last, in one unbroken dark line each, straight across finished paint.

Medium and support

Gouache on paper. Matte and opaque; the cloud is laid in solid passes over the blue rather than lifted out of it. An unpainted margin runs round all four sides.

Signature

Along the lower edge, raypatrick, in grey-brown with the letters widely spaced, reading across the full width of the road.

From the artist:

This was a new construction site on the PCH highway in Hermosa Beach. The tented condo complex was striking against the afternoon sky. I was on my way to the beach when the view demanded to be painted.