Jan 6 - Lambs and the Acrylic of New Jersey

Thanks to all for the feedback on my last blog post.  Good to know we are connected through our art experiences!

Can you see where I've altered the "Uglies" from today's posting compared to the previous one?  Ah, yes... working a bit longer on a painting can help us to create the missing links to good design.  Here I've greyed down the distance, heightened the feel of the water with layers and marks,  and worked to get more of the design feel of the whole scene's time of day (overcast daylight).  No strong shadows anywhere, but darks galore in the values of the wintry day.  It's completely in the Cool Box colors, too.   It's just a 9 x 12 acrylic, and I'm sorry I worked it to this point as one of you asked to buy it at one of the earlier stages!  Gotta be quicker with me... I paint FAST.  (If you can't see the images in this post, just go to my blog elinpendleton.blogspot.com for the most recent one!)

Coming home to the studio was wonderful, although leaving the love- and laughter-filled house on the East Coast (and Onslow) made me ache.  I do have new projects coming up and new workshop places and people on the horizon, and for that, keeping busy is keeping me focused.

First thing was to check on the new lambs, and I'm just over the top!  One of each gender, and the girl has a black ear, quite unusual markings.  As an artist, she just made me laugh out loud when I saw her.  I'm gentling her so she won't be as skittish as her mom, and here's a photo of her little head.  In the second photograph, her ear is black against the background.  She's on the right.  All are doing well.

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2011 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Jan 4 - Flying Home, and Thoughts...

Art is a journey.  I think I've said that before, but it bears repeating.  We artists choose to be on this journey, for the most part because to NOT choose would leave us bereft of the joy of creativity.   I love painting, and making those marks that together become more than their parts.

Art is fixable.  We create some real turkeys, usually in the process of our brushes' wandering to create a finished state in our endeavors.  I call these stages "the Uglies", because they wear the mantle of being SO unfinished, forlorn, and yet with some potential peeking through the brushmarks.  Look at this painting right now.  It is deep in the Uglies, lacking (a short list) details, depth, atmospheric perspective, focal point, lost edges...  Yet I can see its potential and have taken it further along the road to completion.  I am satisfied that it has potential, and so it was easy to overlook the "uglies" part and continue to work on those areas that pull it through.

Knowing what areas to leave alone, and those areas that don't is perhaps what separates the experienced painter from the novice.  With experience, choices become fewer.  There is only so much that will work--in the mind of the trained artist.

I've been told that an unexpected birthing of lambs happened while I was gone.  I didn't know the ewe was bred when I got her, so this came as a complete surprise.  I hope to post pictures of the lamblettes when I get back.

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2011 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Jan 3 - Continuing Into the New Year

This painting is interesting to me because it is developing in a different way than most of my earlier acrylics.  Oh, yeah, the layers are there, and the underpainting of an opposite temperature mid value.  I'm just being more careful in thinking about where I'm putting the values and those cool colors.

This is most probably due to the continuing influence of Lanford Monroe's paintings.  Those of you not familiar with her work ought to peruse "Homefields", the book authored by her husband.  Beautiful reproductions of many of her paintings are in between those covers!  I especially enjoy how she manages the Cool Box colors in her overcast days. 

This little 9 x 12 is just a study developing, but I'm enjoying every moment of its creation.  It's a journey....

My trip to the New Jersey forested area is about to end, and I'm heading back to California tomorrow.  It's been a wonderful visit, so full of love and family support.  Onslow will miss me, since he's been with Sparky and me every night, but he has a wonderful life here, and making him a part of my nephew's family has been good for him.  I'll miss him too!

On other news, the only East Coast Workshop that has any spaces is now filling up in Central Florida.  There are already "repeat offenders" ready to get back into a Color Boot Camp there.  We're finalizing dates for my return this year... stay tuned if you'd like a spot.  The Georgia workshops for folks starting out with the Color System are full--there "might" be a space for repeat offenders in the advanced one.  Let me know if you're interested!

I'm also doing a workshop in Riverside for the AAEA in April.  And there'll be a three-day Color Boot Camp in March in Riverside, too.  I have to finalize dates for that one.

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2011 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.