March 3 - Lazy Horse Warming Up, at the Ranch

"Warming Up" This morning at the Arizona Ranch, Grapevine Canyon Ranch, I took some images that later became paintings. This is an oil, 9 x 12 inches, from seeing the many ranch horses warming up after eating their morning meal. The temperatures last night were down in the teens (verrrrrry cold!!!) and there was ice on everything wet, including the bottle of water I had in the car! Horses are used to colder temperatures, but this boyu liked the idea of getting that sun on his hide in the morning hours. I then had a great four hour ride on a cremello quarter horse, going through some wonderful high desert mountains--humidity is at eight percent, so things are really dry!
This painting just just sold to Louise Mellon of Aiken, North Carolina.

March 2 - Arizona Drive - Full Moon!

Heading into Arizona, I saw the full moon rising over the mountains still lit by the setting sun. Looking intensely at it while I drove, I tried my best to remember all the details and the juxtaposition of the light and values. The desert expanses of this area of Arizona allow the mind to expand as well. Driving was long, but now I'm at the ranch, and able to send on this 6 x 8 acrylic of the evening sky. I couldn't upload it last night since where I stayed no longer has Internet available. More painting tomorrow, after I get my horse for the week, and go on a three-hour trail ride. My friends from the East Coast are here, and the week ahead looks bright! The scenery is beautifully austere and LOADED with subtle grays and muted color. What fun to capture it this week! I'll have photos for you, too!

March 1 - Off and Running, Packing for Arizona

Just a little quick study painting today, because I am off and packing for my departure on the drive over to Arizona, and painting is important! However, since I'm headed for Arizona on the morrow, and will have just a boatload of subjects to paint by tomorrow evening and through next week, I cannot begin a lesson painting just yet.
I surely hope that I won't be unable to post from the ranch, that I will be able to send your images along each day. I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it!
For today, when I was out packing the car, I looked up into our tall pines and saw the full moon coming through the branches, and yet the sun was glowing on the trunk of the tree. I studied/perceived it while it lasted, and brought the memory of it to this 7 x 5 inch acrylic. Interesting note: this is painted with a bunch of "leftover" paints, not my normal palette, because those are already in the car! I did go out and get the titanium white, though...

February 28 - Cold Finish for the end of the Month - Horses in Snow

I know you have been patiently waiting for the finish on this step-by-step painting of the horses in the snow, and I'm pleased to share with you the work today. A fitting end to the end of February--brrrr!! This part of the painting process was with a focus on edges and details. None of those details or edges were in any way important in the last view of this work (February 25). This part of the painting process is actually a lot of fun for me, as I make decisions aobut what is important, and what isn't. This stage can be the most difficult for the learner, in that without experience, the choices are so many! So may I encourage you to paint more, for there truly is no short cut to making good paintings except the doing of it--the progressing from learner to experienced artist done with miles of canvas under your brushes!
Being experienced encouraged me to add the steam breath of the horses, increasing the feel of cold weather. Entitled "Waiting for Dinner", this 16 x 20 original oil is available for $850 from the here for today's date.

Entire Blog is here.

Congratulations to returning collector Charlotte McDavid of Birmingham, Alabama, on her purchase of the "Pot of Red" from earlier this month.

Now, you all know I'm going to Arizona next week, leaving Friday? I am going to do my very best to post a painting each day for you, but have heard from my friends who are already there that they only have dialup service, which is very slow. I promise to make paintings every day I am there, and will post them as I am able.

February 27 - Even Garages can be pretty

The second painting from last Saturday's painting time with the plein air artists of Riverside. This is a 6 x8 oil, and I set up my easel just in front of my horse trailer, and painted the evening light on the side and front of the garage. The title of this painting is actually "The Green Tub" because that really is the focal point.
Someone today asked me why I've been so committed to painting and delivering an art lesson or painting every day since October 12 of 2005, and I replied, after a pause to think, "Because I don't feel my day is complete without opening my heart and mind to the wonderful people who are expecting to see the image tomorrow." I went on to say, "I offer these paintings as a gift. Whatever ability or training I am manifesting in these canvases are as if a gift to these patient and delightful people." You are friends, collectors, and/or artists. The rigors of daily painting give back to me as well, in becoming a better artist, and demonstrating discipline for the practice of painting.
Now tomorrow, since the paint is at least partially set up on it, I'll continue the two horses in the snow!

Blog is HERE
Yes, please forward on to your friends!
Replies always answered.
--Elin Pendleton, AAEA, WAOW, EAG

February 26 - One of the Plein Air Paintings, "Got Rocks?"

I didn't get time to work on the horses today, so will share with you one of the two plein air pieces I did while the Plein Air Artists of Riverside were here last Saturday. Called "Got Rocks?", this 6 x 8 oil was done sitting next to my horse's corral, looking out the back gate. I love the light on these monoliths of "exfoliating granite" that make up the exposed rocks in our area.
The trail that is shown in the lower left is the beginning of the "Brittlebush Loop" that i made with the help of Vincent van Goat a while back. It is nice to look at the painting and see the results of good, hard labor!
Now when you look at this painting, you might think, "nobody has rocks that look like that, all round and that big". But we do have them here and they are great fun to paint! The rocks are abou 15 feet tall from this view.
I'm beginning to pack for my trip to the ranch in Arizona next week. And I sure hope the dial up will allow me to post my paintings! My friends are there already, and have written about the activities and ranch life so far. I'm looking forward to it!

The blog (and I apologize for the incorrect link yesterday) is here.
Congratulations to new collector Linda Hughes from Davis, California on her acquiring "Homeless", the painting of the cat head study.
--Elin

February 25 - The Snow Horses now have Snow!

The painting is now covered, top to bottom, left to right with the basic colors that will influence the final result. I work this way for a bunch of valid reasons:
because it is easier to go from big shapes to little shapes--big brushes to little brushes.
I never lose the overall design shape (abstract structure)
I've solved many of the issues that will bring the viewer closer to inspect the painting in further detail (which is the next step--those details and edges).
I can immediately tell if the design holds up at distance (Howard Pyle used to tell his students, "Thirty mintues, thirty yards" which means if you don't have a strong abstract structure in the first thiry minutes of painting, you ought to start over. Good sage advice. Google his name and look for his history. He taught me a lot, even if he died in Italy in 1911. I have his books--for example the ones by Andrew Loomis, one of his students "Creative Illustration" credits Howard Pyle's influence for his success. Howard Pyle is considered the "Father of American Illusatration" which held high honors from the 1900s through the 1940s until the advent of photographs. Pyle's students read like a who's who of American Illustration. His legacy was his students.

The Blog for all of this:
HERE