Sunshine by the Week

Given the current vogue for all things mid-century, one might expect paintings of L.A.’s borderline motels to be design-inspired. But artist Todd Becraft doesn’t much care about architecture. The Leimert Park resident and immigration attorney is drawn to the quintessentially Los Angeles stories such places have to tell.

“These motels looked like they had the promise of the holiday in paradise,” says New York expat Becraft, who has several motel oil paintings on view through the end of the month at Silver Lake’s Coffee Table cafe. “But they were on the worst streets in seedy neighborhoods. It was the false promise of California, that you might see some washed-up actress. I was reading a lot of noir novels.”

Since Becraft began the series three years ago, he has immortalized more than a dozen motels, most in and around Hollywood: the Sunset 8 Motel, the Hollywood Premiere Motel and the now-gone La Brea Motel, to name a few. (This last, notes Becraft, had the added distinction of being near the Liquorama Liquor Store.) “My favorite might be the [former] Sunset Palm,” says Becraft, who studied painting at both the National Academy School of Fine Arts and the Art Students League in New York. “There’s a big palm tree in front. It seems so resort beachy, but it’s by La Brea and the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ Ralphs [supermarket on Sunset Boulevard].”

How do Becraft’s sunlit tableaux match his noir perspective? “That’s the irony,” he says. “California is full of blue skies and palm trees. But people here are suffering terribly.”