Jan 8 - Starting One for the Art Show at the Dog Show

I did a demonstration of oil painting for the Canyon Lake Art Association last night, and painted this 16 x 20 oil for their pleasure. I am doing this painting for the Art Show at the Dog Show, and it is a yellow Labrador getting that spring into the water on a retrieve. The source material is from collector Dick's son, who raises these great dogs. And the body of water is Lake Elsinore, near where I lived for many years.

I've prepped the canvas with a base color of what looks like a cool yellow, but is Australian Red Gold--a burnt orange. The lights in the room weren't conducive for good color, which will play out in the other images coming. Sigh. I had one of the members stop me every ten minutes as I painted it, so there will be some nice progression.

If you look at the design of this drawing, you'll see that the splashy water and the dog's head occupy the Golden Mean of this surface. Intentional. The source material wasn't like this, and I've also moved the horizon line down into the canvas to create more distance for the viewer to enjoy. It's good to be back in oils!

Signups continue for the February three day Color Boot Camp here in Riverside! I'm looking forward to the new "recruits" to the Color System. You can go here for full information.

And on ebay is one of my book/kits for painting horses--Walter Foster had a run of these, and they are now sold out. I'm not selling this one, but find it interesting to see them come up occasionally.

My roots go way back with the CLAA, being a life member, so it was fun to visit with them again. Tomorrow you'll see what it looks like (and how I think, in the text) after ten minutes of painting.

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