Houses of Color and Light

Arroyo Monthly | Published on 08-01-2008

Artist David Jonason’s “cubism lite” paintings help viewers see bungalows in a fresh way.

By Kim Ohanneson

When David Jonason looks at bungalows, he's reminded of bones. “I think the image of the bungalow surrounded by orange trees and climbing roses is as iconic to Pasadena as Georgia O'Keeffe's mesas and cow skulls are to New Mexico,” says the architectural artist, who paints Craftsman charmers and Santa Fe sanctuaries as well as moderne mansions.

Jonason's passion for bungalows has inspired his color-and-light-splashed paintings of some of Pasadena's most distinctive Craftsman landmarks, ultimate bungalows like the Gamble and Blacker houses as well as homes with less famous pedigrees. He uses a technique he calls “cubism lite,” borrowing elements of cubism and realism — “clean lines, strong forms and bold use of color” — to emphasize architectural design in his paintings of buildings.

The style bestows an almost mythical quality upon his subjects. “[Bungalows] are heroic in their own way,” says Jonason, who uses tight perspective to emphasize signature stylistic details such as fieldstone, broad porches and Japanese-inspired window treatments. Jonason's dynamic skies, a unique hallmark of his work, highlight the bungalows' inherent drama; the artist uses alternating slashes of light and color to create visual excitement around the featured building in the same way that “klieg lights are used in the movie industry at a premiere.”

Michael Hollis, whose eponymous South Pasadena gallery represents Jonason, says his technique inspires the viewer to reexamine familiar structures such as Pasadena City Hall, which was featured in his spring show of paintings of city landmarks. “[David] breaks the subject down to the essential elements, then builds it up again,” Hollis says. “People can pass City Hall a hundred times, but David's painting helps them see it in a new light. A re-examination of things that are familiar has a particular appeal.”

Jonason's clarity of focus, rigorous shapes and attention to detail are built on his earlier career as a commercial artist and illustrator. “Fine art is craft taken to the next level,” Hollis says. “Many of the best artists are illustrators because they come with a refined eye, and David is smart at rephrasing traditional skills.” He adds that Jonason shares an aesthetic sensibility with his friend, Pasadena artist R. Kenton Nelson. “They trod parallel paths for a while. Both artists have backgrounds in illustration. Their work is very graphic with the hint, the suggestion, of a story.”

When Jonason isn't painting in his Mendocino home (“a modern take on New England Cape Cod style — lots of glass and decks [with] a bit of bungalow aesthetic,” he says) or playing blues and jazz standards with his band, Two Blue Dudes, he travels to favorite painting locales in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest. Southern California remains a constant source of inspiration, however, perhaps because Jonason grew up in Pacific Palisades and Woodland Hills. He was a frequent sight at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon), where he haunted art shows and lectures. “I remember going to [the Pasadena Art Museum] to hear Claes Oldenburg speak about his work,” says Jonason.

But it wasn't until 1998, when Jonason met his wife Michele, then a San Marino resident, that he began to explore the Pasadena area in depth and discover the iconic bungalows that would become his “special loves.” He began painting them in 2003. “In the '20s and '30s, architecture [here] excelled in the private sector,” he says. “Most architectural movements start with high-priced homes and filter down. Bungalows are one of the few architectural movements that started with reasonably priced homes. If New York's greatest architectural expression was the skyscraper, then for L.A., it's the private home [which was] vitally important in defining the notion of California living.”

The artist is especially interested in the interplay between bungalows and the gardens surrounding them. “The bungalow design aesthetic emphasized this intimate relationship to nature [through] the use of broad covered porches where you are meant to linger, read, relax and relate to the outdoors,” he says. “And the horizontal quality of the bungalow, with its low roof line, allowed it to blend into the surrounding landscape.”

Jonason's paintings, which range in price from $2,000 to $10,000, strike a particular chord with current and former Pasadena residents who feel that his work “captures a little bit of their memories,” Hollis says. The artist, who supports historic preservation by donating paintings to the Los Angeles Conservancy, also does a thriving business in commissions. “One of the spin-offs of the shows is that people who come want portraits of their own houses,” Jonason says. “I get to go into these wonderful historical houses and do paintings of them.” Southern California collectors who have commissioned pieces from Jonason include Hollywood producer Gale Ann Hurd and Jane Wiedlin of the New Wave band the Go-Go's.

In Jonason's view, contemporary Angelenos commission portraits of their residences to celebrate their local culture, much like 17th-century arts patrons in the Netherlands, who were painted surrounded by their possessions. “Southern Californians are becoming more house-proud,” he says. “We're realizing that there are historically important buildings in Los Angeles. The impression that Los Angeles is just Tinseltown is gone.”