Thursday, October 13, 2011

Leaving more behind...



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Workshop News
Riverside Weekend, November 5-6 at Two Trees Studio
February in Aiken, South Carolina
March in Thousand Oaks, California (new!)
Please email me for more information, as I haven't updated the web sites yet.
Other News
Just Packing!
 
October 13 - Leaving More Than Just the Place

 
Today I said goodbye to my beloved Vincent van Goat, whose life I ended in a need for compassion in his last hours. Those of you who have known me for the past 14 years also knew Vincie, my pack goat. He has been featured in many of my DVDs, even joined a group of MBAs over at the University for a joke in a photo shoot, and he was just a beautiful soul.
 
The painting above was done from reference material on one of our many walkabouts with him carrying my paint gear. His body rests near there now, and I will always remember his sense of humor and good nature when I asked him to go above and beyond his normal routine of just being with me when I painted. He was stoic, funny and always appreciated good treatment. Not many goats are born into the hands that will eventually end their lives, so in that regard, he was one lucky goat.
 
The end of an era...his large, Swiss neck bell is silent.

 
I fly tomorrow and am for the most part ready to go. I worry about the place here, and the animals/dogs/cats I leave in certainly capable hands, yet I know when I'm airborne I'll be looking forward to new friends, more paint than you can shake a stick at, and fun times.
I hope you'll continue on with me on this journey, and perhaps forward this on to your friends and family.
 
Thanks for reading,
Elin
Elin Pendleton, AAEA WAOW
POB 5954, Riverside, CA 92517

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Packing & History, 100 years ago



Friendly Links
Workshop News
I have several workshops coming up in the next few months, and there are still spaces in them.
November in California - A weekend in Riverside
February in Aiken, South Carolina
March in Thousand Oaks, California (new!)
Please email me for more information, as I haven't updated the web sites yet.
Other News
100 Years Ago...And Now
 
I received an email from a lady at the Historical Museum of Hotchkiss, Colorado, yesterday. She wrote asking about my paternal grandparents, who raised my dad and uncle there just after the turn of the last century (my dad was born in 1906.) 
She was excited to know that my grandmother Bess was an avid photographer, and that I had several albums of life in Hotchkiss. We'll be working together in filling their archives with images of the life there as I digitalize many of the photos.
 
Here's one of my grandmother Bess Thomas, with one of the many cameras she loved to use. No Margaret Bourke-White, but my grandmother took thousands of images of her life.
 
And I must say that the family resemblence is strong, as is the joy in doing what she loved!
 
 
October 12 - Packing the Last Bits for Georgia
 
This nice little 8 x 6 acrylic could be just about anywhere in our world...anywhere we can raise our eyes to the treetops and enjoy the wonderful sky above. I painted this as "edu-tainment" for the gallery in Idyllwild, using traditional acrylics.
 
What I like about it is the variation of greens in the trees (who doesn't sigh and roll their eyes when we talk about the greens on our palette!). Their are mixtures of both warm and cool greens from the Color System, and they play very well against the grays of the sky clouds. 
 
My characteristic brushwork is very much in evidence, mimicing the wind in the pines--which is the characteristic of these denizens of nature when swayed by mountain breezes. I know I've "nailed it" when I can get both my brushes and the subject to connect this way.
 
This painting is available, from me for $95 with free shipping.  (email me!)
 
I hope you'll continue on with me on this journey, and perhaps forward this on to your friends and family.
 
Thanks for reading,
Elin
Pesto and Bats, ex-studio cats, now living room cats (where the sun shines!)
Elin Pendleton, AAEA WAOW
POB 5954, Riverside, CA 92517