A PERFECT VIEW DETOURED PAINTER RETURNS TO FIRST LOVE.

Byline: Katie Cooper Staff Writer

BURBANK - Back in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, John Livingston gave up on his dream of an artist's life, the career ambition he had nurtured since he was a boy.

Under the weight of a failing economy, the Burbank resident chose a more practical pursuit, eventually ending up at Lockheed's ``Skunk Works'' plant after the United States entered World War II.

But since his retirement as an aircraft inspector in 1975, Livingston has returned to his first love, cranking out an impressive array of realist oil paintings. Two of his works are included in the permanent collection of the Burbank Historical Society's Gordon R. Howard Museum.

Now at age 90, the spry virtuoso is tackling what is literally his biggest project ever: an 8-foot-by-24-foot landscape mural, albeit on the side of his neighbor's garage.

``I kept looking at a bare wall, and I decided it would look a lot better if it was part of the landscape,'' Livingston said Tuesday in the back yard of his home near McCambridge Park, where he also tends to an extensive fruit and vegetable garden.

The side of the garage runs along a portion of his property line, and faces entirely away from the back yard of his neighbor, who consented to the use of the stucco wall as an artist's canvas.

The mural, depicting the Owens River near Bishop, appears nearly complete to the untrained eye.

But Livingston - who said he has at least two months' work to go on the project - is quick to point out the absence of exposed branches in the trees and what he says is the missing purple hue of the foothills.

``Oh, and the reeds along the river need to be reflected better in the water,'' said Livingston, dressed in his painting pants - corduroys flecked with the blues, yellows and browns that dominate his work.

To paint the scene, a favorite fishing hole for Livingston and his sons, David and Stephan, Livingston climbed a 4-foot-tall ladder to capture the brilliant blue sky and the snow-covered Sierra Nevada.

Inside his modest two-story home, Livingston's oil paintings hang on nearly every wall: Yosemite Falls here, a view of Jerusalem there. Some of the places he has visited, others he painted from photographs in books or magazines.

One, of the Taj Mahal, the favorite of his late wife, Marie, used to hang in her room at a convalescent home where she lived after suffering a series of debilitating strokes. The painting was such a hit, the staff asked to borrow some of his works for the other residents.

More than 20 paintings are still on loan there.

Livingston said other people always ask him what the secret is to his longevity.

``And I always say, 'I've been blessed with good health and a hobby I love,' '' said Livingston. ``And now that I'm retired, I can do what I really wanted to do.''

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Photo:

John Livingston, 91, of Burbank, has brightened up his back yard by painting a mural on his neighbor's garage wall.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer