The Scene Switches to an Art Exhibit

“The wonderful thing about being an artist,” says Merwin Altfeld, “is that you can move scenery and move mountains.”

Altfeld, 80, does just that in his current exhibition, “Viewpoint,” at the Mountain View Memorial Gallery in Altadena. His 26 mixed-media paintings of Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley landmarks take “artistic liberties that architects can’t,” he says.

For instance, a rendering of the Pacific Asia Museum removes the parking lot, puts a nearby pizza parlor next door, and returns the displaced statues of two Chinese dogs to the front entrance. A picture of Pasadena City Hall from the front takes fountains and other buildings from the back and places them in view. “If a dome is light blue, I make it violent blue,” he says.

“They’re not photographic representations,” says curator Jae Carmichael of Altfeld’s works. “They’re creative interpretations . . . it’s a fascinating, happy kind of show.”

That may seem quite a contrast to the gallery’s site, which is, as Carmichael says, “in a mausoleum.” Owned by the Pasadena Cemetery Association, the 60-foot long, 35-foot wide space was neglected for years before Carmichael began working on it in 1988. Since then, it has hosted several exhibits, including a one-year perspective of the Los Angeles riots, Carmichael says.

Altfeld is a veteran of Los Angeles and European landmark representations.

He has done a series of stationery cards of the Santa Monica Pier and, in the ‘80s, was commissioned to do 150 paintings of European landmarks for the staterooms of the Queen Mary.

The former president of the National Color Society, he taught modern painting at the University of Judaism.

Modern painting, to Altfeld, involves learning how to “break away and express yourself.”

The paintings in “Viewpoint” include acrylic, collage, watercolors, inks and pastels, and the mixed media is what makes them vibrant, he says. “They’re very cheerful despite being in a mortuary.”

“Viewpoint,” at Mountain View Memorial Gallery, 2300 N. Marengo Ave., is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays and holidays until Jan. 4. It will be closed New Year’s Day. Admission is free. (818) 794-7133.