Iconic landmark

The next prompt is "ICONIC LANDMARK: geographical, historical, social, cultural, novelty." I did a search for "Van Nuys landmarks" and came up with a bunch of stuff "near" Van Nuys—in Mission Hills, the Hollywood Hills, and Studio City, plus the rather hideous Federal Building, which I didn't at all wish to draw! But then I hit the jackpot—the Japanese Garden, built next to the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant on Woodley Avenue, to demonstrate "a positive use of reclaimed water in a delicate environment."

The truth is, I didn't think of it right off the bat because despite having lived within three miles of it for almost 30 years, I have never been there! It's true that the hours are odd (Monday-Thursday from 11-4) and until a year ago I mostly worked full-time, but the gardens are also open from 10-4 on Sundays. I have driven by the entryway countless times, on my way to the parking lot for the wildlife refuge that butts up against the Sepulveda Dam back behind the garden, but even though it's supposedly open on Sundays, it's been closed many times—for filming, for construction, for a multitude of reasons. But the website has great photos, so I chose one and made a painting of what looks like a true iconic landmark!

The garden is 6.5 acres, and includes a dry Zen meditation garden, a Chisen "wet promenade" garden with lakes, waterfalls, and streams, and stone lanterns, and an authentic tea house and tea garden. The combinations of flowers such as azaleas, cherry trees, magnolias, wisteria, raphiolepis indica, iris and lotus, along with the other garden features, provides beauty throughout the year.

The garden was designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana, who was responsible for the designs of more than a dozen major Japanese gardens in the United States, including botanical gardens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Diego’s Balboa Park, and gardens in Denver, Chicago, Memphis, Minneapolis, and the largest Japanese garden in the United States—the 14-acre garden in St. Louis. He pioneered the design of traditional Japanese gardens that utilized plants native to the area of the garden, and won many prestigious awards for his designs. He taught Japanese architecture and landscape design at UCLA. He passed away at the age of 60 in 1990.

The adjacent water reclamation plant services 750,000 to 800,000 residents to the west, north and northeast of it. Approximately 60% of the wastewater is from residents and 40% from industrial and commercial sources. After a process of many steps and much filtration, reclaimed water can be made available for reuse, with any excess being discharged into the Los Angeles River.

And thus ends today's Van Nuys history lesson! I'll do some plein air paintings of this place for sure, once it reopens post-virus...whenever that is.