Last Thursday night I attended the opening of American Light: Paintings by John Tierney at the Paul Smith shop on Melrose. Unlike other art events I’ve experienced in the past, this one had a decidedly Hollywood / fashion industry vide. As the invitation only crowd browsed Paul Smith’s latest collection, waiters clad in all black served wine and British beer to the artist and his son Ben, Alan Aldridge, Josh Duhamel, Stacy Ferguson (aka Fergie), Ryan Philippe, Diana Aragon, Abbie Cornish and Mira Sorvino, among many others.

Earlier this year I published a story about English painter John Tierney, who makes regular visits to southern California and has a particular fascination with the City of Los Angeles and the area in and around Joshua Tree National Park. After interviewing him for my article and spending time looking at his paintings online, I became an admirer of his work because of the way he uses vivid colors and deftly captures light and shadow in his urban and desert landscapes.