Feb 12 - Still working on the Polo Ponies Oil

It is really coming together now with the start and the addition of the warm box palette in those grassy sunlit areas! The Color System works so well, because it was just an easy switch of the boxes to get to this point, and you can see how the dynamics of adding the warms makes the painting read right.

The colors in the grasses are not pure by any means, but are from the warm box, with the dominant pigments being sap green, cad yellow and cad orange. Can you feel the heat there? It contrasts so beautifully with the blue-green shadows laid in yesterday. Again, no edges worrying me at this point, just the big shapes.

A good weekend ahead, with fun, painting and laughter. I hope yours will be as much fun.

Many of you asked for mor info about my aikido training, so I thought I'd send along a photograph taken in front of the shomen (front of the mat area) at the place where I train. Yes, that's me, ready to take on all attacks. I'll be continuing with my training for as long as I can, and that will be many more years. It gives me connection in so many ways, including to you.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Jan 12 - Continuing to Cover the Demonstration Canvas

I skipped through a couple of ten minutes sessions to get you to this point because I want you to see the bigger picture of what happened. I'll add one of the earlier ones below for clarity. The Warm Box is open now, and I'm putting in the cadmiums that are int he sky on the left, and also in the water reflections.

The splash under the dog is WAY too green, and the blue is too strong--got carried away there, and didn't even see it until much later. That's the down side of painting for a demonstration, talking, and changing the time of day on source material! I'll pull it through and modify it later, but wanted you to see it now. That's because no matter what, everyone makes mistakes as they work through the process of painting. It's knowing where those mistakes are, and how to correct them, that may separate the less experienced painters from the pros. I can also see that the values aren't dramatic enough to convey the backlit evening time, so there is another major "fix" that will have to occur before I can call it done.

That's like life, though. We go forward, thinking we're doing what's right and "proper", only to be caught up short with new knowledge that radically changes our behavior and our outlook on things, as we formerly perceived them. In art, we can stretch our wings into new directions, as long as we are not shackled to the expectations of galleries and collectors. In life, the restrictions are more insidious--sometimes coming from within ourselves, even! So I'm leaning into my ARTIST mindset, and making some fun and exciting choices about how I'm going to spend the rest of my life. Conventional wisdom can go pound sand--I'm having FUN!!! The art is reflecting that outlook--more free, more interesting subjects and truly exciting to create. Life is GOOD.

Oh, yeah, good except for the cortizone shot they poked in my hip today. Seems I have a touch of bursitus from the motorcycle accident and the doc thinks that this shot will fix me up right 'n' proper. I'm not to do anything but WALK for three friggin' days, so she says. That is SO not fair. I want to chase my horses, fall all over the mats in aikido and dance the night away! OK, so I'll find a bucket of patience somewhere.... Friday cannot come too soon for this lady.

Still have one or two spaces in the February Color Boot Camp coming up Feb 12-15. Best value for your artistic money, in that this will not change your style or method, but will profoundly affect your color choices and color harmony in your work! Email me for the information. It promises to be an intimate and enlightening opportunity for you, right here in my studio.

Here's the one prior to the covered canvas image, and I can easily see I lost my concentration in that splash area, and the dog doesn't have much detail...

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Aug 4 - What You've Been Waiting For - Finished!

"Toes Up" Original oil on linen, 9 x 12 $475
There he is, all comfy and totally zonked out. Even the whiskers are in (enlarge it to eight inches to see), and the hierarchy of edges is in place. I didn't detail out the links on the collar, and I kept those values lower. Unlike the details around the mouth and eye, because that's where I want the muzzle to be more important. The pure circle-shape of the collar ring could have been a huge eye-catcher, so again lowering the value helped there. Squint your eyes and see how it melts into the background!

Now look at that rightmost hind foot and how it "reads right" as a gray blue mid value. Even though you saw it earlier and saw the contrast between it and the front paws--can you see why having both back feet lower in value keeps you in the painting? Values are SO important in design. Knowing where to put them to create the composition is a very left-brain thing (although after a couple thousand paintings it can become right-brain intuitive).

News around here...the last couple days have seen a crew on Two Trees clearing the fire breaks for another long season where we worry about wildland fires. Being inside the Preserve means keeping all loose brush/leaves/pine needles bagged up and away. But this year's clearing required heavy equipment and hand laborers. Here's a picture of our blooming bougainvillea on the back fence, now bisecting a nicely cleared area. All that tan stuff on the far mountain is fuel in the form of dry grass. But we're inside a cleared ring around our place. Rain? What's that?

My demo for Ukiah is coming up on August 13, and then the workshop in Sebastopol, ending with a second demonstration on August 20 there. I'm thinking about what I need to take with me for these exciting events!

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Aug 1 - Going to the Dogs Lesson Painting Continues

I emphasize the value structure and impact a painting needs to have to really be worthy for a second, closer look. Although not set in stone, as many artists make a body of work that doesn't have this feature, I believe that for "most" artists, a strong value structure will carry the day.

At this point I'm painting big shapes of a particular value to hold together the structure of the coming details. You saw the source material yesterday, so you know at least in your mind, what is coming. But at this stage, look at the beautiful brushwork on the right side, and the subtle complementary colors of orange and blue in that lower right section of dark! Wow. No matter how detailed the dog becomes, that area will be a secondary area of interest. No dog eyelashes yet! Details come later, after the value structure is in place. All of this so far has been done with the cool box colors.

This is fun, painting with the juicy Classic Artist Oils. I still love acrylics, both Open and traditional, yet it is such fun to do a thick, juicy oil to mix it up.

I had a wonderful visit from a former student who graciously credits me with giving him direction when he needed it about ten years ago. Frank Stockton is an editorial illustrator now living in New York, and his imagery is on the cover of Communication Arts this month. The link will take you to the magazine's page where you'll see him and his work. Teaching has so many rewards, and knowing Frank has been at the top of the list lately. Check his web site and look over his list of clients! He admits that there was a lot of hard work to get where he is now.

Congratulations to Roy Renfro of Plano, Texas, on his purchase of the plein air Rocks painting which has been added to his collection of Elins!

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

May 9 - Demonstration Painting, 16 x 20 Oil for the Associated Artists

This painting was done this morning during a demonstration for the Associated Artists of the Inland Empire, over in Rancho Cucamonga. What a great drive, to a grand location, with a warm and welcoming group of artists in attendance. I started it about 9:45, and finished up the talk at 11 with a break in between.

Some of the ideas I shared were about painting as a process, not an individual product, and to think of your work as stepping stones to a distant destination, rather than putting too much of your emotional self in the current work. I also shared vestiges of my Color System, and also a joke here and there. Even though i say I won't do as many demonstrations now, when I get in front of a group like today's it is tough to think of not doing it any more!

This one is an oil, and might get a bit more tweaking before it goes up on the daily paintings web site. My goodness, I need to update that!

The workshop in Murrieta, California, is full now, with 15 people ready to paint up a storm on May 15. Directions and other information will be forthcoming to the attendees.

You can see the entire blog here.

If you need to email me directly, please click here.