September 3 - Fox Hound

"A Heart for the Hunt" You probably know that sometimes I go into the studio and have no idea what I'm going to paint.  This is good, because then I am never frustrated or dismayed if I'm taken from a preset goal.  Today was the poster child for that method.  I received an email from a friend and artist with a camera, with some distressing news of a life event that is a real challenge for her.  Her words moved me, and I paint this tonight in her honor.  

Vickee has been the official photographer for Red Rock Hounds, over there in Reno, Nevada, and had graciously shared some of her photographs with me for use in my painting process a couple years ago.  An enjoyable communication was begun, and we've kept in touch over the years with paintings and photographs passing one another in the mail.  I've been brought up short by her news and wanted to somehow express my concern--so I paint.  The source material for this 8 x 6 gallery wrap oil is one of her photographs.  I've wanted to paint it, but before, it just never felt quite "right".  Now, it is.

It is not for sale, because I want to give Vickee the first opportunity to take it, and until she makes her decision, I'll hold it.

September 2 - Yellow Rocker Revisited

"Yellow Rocker, Revisited" without looking at yesterday's painting, I startedt his one in acrylics for the challenge of seeing how I'd handle the subject some years later. The palette is somehow richer, the design is more subtle, and each painting has its charm. The difference is this one is for SALE. It's a 12 x 9 acrylic, and has the lovely layers in the shadows that are so much fun to paint. SOLD to the collection of Sylvia Moran of Ontairo, Canada

September 1 - Yellow Rocker

I have been sitting here trying to sort out my web sites, all three of them are on one server that is completely down and has been for the past half day. I've started the process for moving them so you'll be able to see them again, and because of the hours of work this has generated, I have not been able to do a new painting for you tonight/today.  What a headache, but only for me.
  So I thought I'd share with you a REAL GEM... from long ago and far away, so to speak. One of the early good'uns.
  You sadly won't be able to see it on the web site, until the Internet gets sorted out about where to send you when you type in dailypaintings.com, but I'll share it here with you as I update my sites on the new server. So I cannot send you a link to see it for AOL users.
  This is/was a 12 x 9 oil of a rocking chair I had back in the early 80's, sitting on my old front porch. I painted it from a photograph, and want to share with you some of the details that make it a fairly decent painting:
  1. The values are broad in scope, from the lightest light to the darkest dark; yet there is a relationship of small lights, large dark shapes in mid tones to fall right in the "good design" of Edgar Whitney.
  2.  The colors are analogous, falling into the range of yellow/green with a blue/violet complement to create color interest. Note the AMOUNT of each color, and how grayed they are to keep the balance going.
  3. The use of the illusion of warms in the shadow side of the chair is accomplished by using alizarin crimson and yellow ochre with lemon yellow to keep the palette in line with the "Color System".
  This painting is already in the collection of Steve Kilburn of Lake Elsinore, California.

August 31 - Onions again

"Cebolla" is Spanish for onion, pronounced "see-BOW-yah", courtesy of an artist friend Luz Perez, whose studio is called Cebolla Studio. Today's painting slips back into the acrylic world as I get ready to teach the workshop in Lexington in just over a week. I've packed one box and mailed it off, with some supplies and clothes; the second box will go out tomorrow.  Considering that I pack my supplies padded with clothes I intend to wear, I sure hope the boxes make it to Melissa and Bill's farm before I do! Else I'll be in the same clothes for a while. It's fun to come back to acrylics. The workshop is about teaching students to reach beyond the ordinary way of handling them, and to give them tricks and tips about handling this versatile medium. They may paint horses, but they'll paint them in new and different ways!

My emails have increased, and today I found out I was mentioned in the New York Times.  Not sure about it, because I don't have access to the site (too busy to sign up).  I was wondering why there were so many emails... now I know.  Hmmm, I wonder what they said?
Just SOLD to returning collector Fay Bohlayer of Dawsonville, Georgia.

August 30 - Sunset on the Rocks

"Evening Glow" Today we received our wifi at the new house, and it was fun to collect emails while sitting outside. In the eveing I was watching the doves come down to drink from the bird fountain in the front yard. I looked up just at dusk to the hills behind the house, and saw this light on the rocks of Box Springs Mountain. I know that we are going to especially enjoy the evening light in the Preserve around us if this is any indication of how it is. Original oil, 7 x 5 inches. $100 from the web site at dailypaintings.com.

August 29 - How Now Black and White Cow?

"Life in the Field" Tonight's painting is an extension of yesterday's, in that I have returned to the same scene, and added a cow to a new canvas. The cow seems to know changes are coming, ignoring the viewer and staring off into space. Changed the time of day, too, toward noon, and more of the summer light of California.  
 We're having some wildfires in the region, which makes for some spectacular sunsets with the orange cloud cover creating red-orange scenes. Might make a good subject for tomorrow.
This is a 12 x 16 inch canvas, and incorporates the "mama, papa, baby" design theory as put forth by watercolorist and teacher, the late Edgar Whitney. The low values of the shadow and the black on the cow are the baby. It's a good way to easily divide a canvas for pleasing design, and you can find out more about this from his book "Watercolor the Edgar Whitney Way" (I think... because my books are over at the new studio. This painting is available for $300 from the dailypaintings.com web site for this date.

August 28 - Lost Landscape

"The View is History" This 9 x 12 painting came off my brushes tonight. I have been driving back and forth between the old house and the new and one part of my drive takes me through the last of the open space near our old place. Going through the construction zone that USED to be this view is part of that drive. This WAS a particularly beautiful stretch of California fields, backed by these hills, lit in the morning light of an autumn dawn.  Every year the farmer would plant hard winter wheat, and it would go from green in our "winter" to light gold by April, and then be harvested, leaving the wheel tracks in the stubble. Now all of that is gone, under the developer's blade, and never to be seen again.  Houses, streetlights and parked cars replace this beauty.
  Although it breaks my heart, I also feel a small sense of rebellious satisfaction as I preserve the memory forever.  Original oil, 9 x 12 inches, $200
Available only from the dailypaintings.com site for this date.

August 27 - Canned Corn

"What, Me Warhol?" Moving means emptying out the kitchen, and what is more common than a can of corn? Everybody has a couple of these on the kitchen shelf, and this one didn't get packed today. So it was a late dinner. I enjoyed painting it before digging in, because of the turn of the can from light into shadow meant that I worked through the warms to the cool palette as it slipped into shadow. Ellipses are also a bit fun to do, as the roundness of the can needs to fall back in space. Since I've moved my antique parlor mirror over to the other studio, my "silent critic" is truly silent! Original oil, 7 x 5 inches. $100 available from the dailypaintings.com website for this day.

August 26 - An Old Work Resurfaces!

"A Swish and A Wash" I'm never more astonished than when I uncover something that I could hardly remember creating, and moving is really uncovering an interesting array of artwork. Since this is Saturday night, and I'm tired from a long day of moving and cleaning the house for people to see on Sunday, I thought you might enjoy a journey into the past. (Why do people want to see the house when it is in such disarray? These people better buy it!)  
  The story behind this watercolor (!) is that I painted it 38 years ago while enrolled in a figurative painting class at Ventura College, on the coast of California.  Watercolor was how we learned to do quick studies, and I must have done fifty of them. This one was the best of the lot. I gave it to my aunt and uncle, and they had it professionally framed under glass in the gold you see here.  
  The work itself shows youthfulness, no color sense, and yet the proportions on the figure are better than one would expect.  I went through a period of doing quasi-abstractions, mostly to cover a lack of the pure knowledge that comes with time and practice.  I can remember putting in the squares on the lower right, exploring my new knowledge of negative space. I thought that they would add interest and movement.
  As you look at it, I hope you realize that making art is all about growing, not about arriving.  This work is signed in ink with the name I used at that time (Patricia Thomas), lower right, with a number 1/20 as though it was a print. I didn't know squat about print runs, and numbering this original is a splendid example of my ignorance.  20 x 13.5 inches, in gold frame, $300 for a piece of history.-

August 25 - Silly Socks

Every once in a while I find myself painting something totally silly.  Silly sock subjects.  As I was folding laundry this afternoon, I started to see these ordinary socks in a new way.  The character of the socks became more important than their utilitarian purpose.  Arranging them to reveal that character took almost as much time as the creation of the painting itself.  No master piece this, yet I found the painting of socks to be sublimely rewarding and funny.  I'm chuckling as I look at the painting attached, and almost feel as though the Aflack duck is looking back at me.  Who would have thought "Silly Socks" would have such character?  What makes a good painting?  Is it is the subject, or how it is painted, or the story it reveals?
  There's a question for the ages.  5 x 7 Original oil, $100 for a silly painting of silly socks! Good for a laugh anytime.
Available from the web site for this date at dailypaintings.com.

August 24 - Garden Tomatoes

"You Say Tomato" Today's image contains more of the tomatoes that ended up in the salad du jour, but paused for a while on the taboret. I enjoyed painting these fellows because of the need to make them step back in space.  You see, I knew that was my focus before I even lifted a brush. We have tools at our hand to make distance appear on the flat planes of our canvas--saturation, focus, value.  I'm really pleased at how the edges change from tomato to tomato, and how the colors decrease in both value and saturation as the illusion is made to "fall back" in space.  As I sat and looked at their luscious form and color in the studio, that distance and space was not apparent. As artists, we make reality more beautiful.  7 x 5 oil for $100. -

August 23 - Afternoon Lit Pear

"Afternoon Pear" One of the handiest tools for teaching is to have an example/sample visual for students to handle when grasping new ideas. Last year I did a series of red pears in all types of light, and since that time, have sold a few of them. Now I'm replacing those missing ones with some new ones. This is the example I'll use to explain the shadow behavior on afternoon light. I've enhanced the shadow a bit for clarity. $100 from the dailypaintings.com web site for today's date.

August 22 - Problem Painting

"Problem Child Revisited" Remember this one? It was a couple months ago (June 17) that I was on location and painted the first version of this 6 x 6 oil. Now, what with moving and chaos abounding, I decided to pick this one up and make some serious surgical changes. Call it a face lift! Compare the prior image to this one, and see if you can see how many design changes I did. Don't say, "you removed the water edge," but rather, "you increased the shape of the water and mirrored the land's shape to create repetition that intrigues the eye." When you make corrections to paintings, use design terms to describe what you did, and that will go a long way to help you know WHY what you did worked. Just saying that I put in some branches only states the obvious. Saying that I keep the viewer's eye from going out of the top of the painting by the shapes of the leaf clusters, says a whole 'nother thing. This one may get more work, but I'm loading the horse trailer with dog kennel panels early tomorrow, so I'm due to do some serious checking of the eyes for light leaks. 'Night.

August 21 - Pack Mule, Stepping Out

"Stepping Out"  Now is this appropriate for moving, or what? Ho ho!  Here's a PACK MULE (and I sure can relate as I sit here with aching muscles and unmoved loads!) with a full set of panniers going out on the trail.  Those first few steps are full of resistance to forward movement... like me in the mornings lately!  I do have to say that every day it is getting better--the studio boxes are getting unpacked, plans are unfolding for the canvas and frame storage areas, and I'm even getting ready to dismantle the Hughes easel and send (carry) it over to the new place of honor.  Along with great thoughts like that are ones of today's work.  I spent a good portion of it hacking with a machete at cactus that has been around for fifty years, harboring all sorts of vermin way too close to the house.  Temps in the mid-90s.  Hooked the diesel pickup with a logging chain to one of them, and almost pulled some of it out with great excitement, at least until the chain snapped.  Tomorrow, more of the same.  Painting seems so civilized and genteel compared to machetes and logging chains.  Visions of the rat who stole my digital camera go through my head as I swing the tool.  Makes for efficient slicing of a moist and thorny spindle of green, opening up new views and creating room under the pines.  Maybe I'm a bit "mulish" about it???
SOLD to the collection of Charlotte McDavid of Birmingham, Alabama.

August 20 - Moonlight Horse #2

"So what's with the moonlight, Elin?" Most probably I'm trying to escape into the darkness from all the issues surrounding the new house.  So busy, every day... 
This 5 x 7 oil is the "other one" for the moonlight explanation in the upcoming workshops.  Note the muted colors!  This one conveys the same feel for moonlight, but is done with very muted colors in the system, following the cool palette completely.  There are no cadmiums in this painting!  Compare it with yesterday's strong colors, and you can see how knowing the system requires time to learn to tone it down.  I've had some nice emails from former students whose work is getting to this new level.
  I wanted to hide when I found some anatomical issues with yesterday's piece and today's already gives me the golly-wobbles when I look at it, but I keep reminding myself "this is a quick study" not a carefully crafted piece destined for some museum somewhere.  Hey, teachers need to make an instructional point sometimes at the expense of drawing accuracy.  Don't shoot me.  I'll fix it.  Last year I used pears.  You can make a lot of anatomical mistakes on pears and nobody cares.  Do a horse wrong and everybody notices... 

August 19 - Moonlight Horse

"Moonlight Exercise"  This painting is a really quick study that I'll take with me to Kentucky next month, to help explain the color system for moonlight scenes during the workshop I'll be teaching.  I'll do a second one with far more muted colors, to help the students understand that with advanced practice, the colors you choose become more subtle and thusly more beautiful to the human eye.
  It's an oil, 5 x 7 inches.  The horse was done without any yellow but yellow ochre.
$100 from the dailypaintings.com site for this date.

August 18 - Moonrise #2

"Moonrise #2"  I'm exploring the response of my emotions to the moonrise again with some quick color studies to see if I can capture the essense of a mood. This is such a painting. There are nuances of color and brushwork in this one that are missing from the other one. It is an acrylic, but done without layering. It's interesting to switch between oils and acrylics and to see how the use of one affects the other. Can you tell this is acrylic? 5 x 7.  $100 from the dailypaintings.com web site for this date.

August 17 - Moonrise

"Moonrise at the Edge of the Woods"  I have memories of moonrises just like this one, growing up in Virginia. In the summertime, I would be out late playing, and look up to see the moon coming up over the trees.  Growing older, moonrise represented romance, wonderment about my future, and a familiar friend.  Nowadays when I see a full moon rise, I have memories to recall, and enjoy the continuity of this life-long event.  I wonder where and how the moon will rise behind the new place?  Where is your moonrise?  Original oil, 6 x 6 on gallery wrap canvas.  $100 available from the dailypaintings.com web site for this date.

August 16 - The New Mailbox

"Mailbox at the New Place" Today my brushes were on something totally different for me--a mailbox!  We have to put in a new box for the mail at the new studio, and my spouse brought home one that will hold small parcels securely.  Of course it has to have the street numbers on it, and if this is the portent of things to come, looks like there are many more painting opportunities ahead on non-normal surfaces!  
  I took a view from the end of the street, and put in the mailbox on the left, and then added the scene of the house as one would see it from that point.  The Reserve is in the background, and I think it portrays the feel of the seclusion.  The numbers were done in thalo blue, to contrast with the usual cool palette of distant landscape. I wanted a loose, fun font for the numbers, so I wouldn't have to live up to the calligraphers on the list! First I had to prep the surface with a sanding to rough up the powder coat finish, and then a layer of gesso before painting this with oils. Original oil, about 6 x 12 inches

August 15 - Blueberries and Blue Glass

"Blueberries and Blue Glass" Here's another painting of things I'm uncovering in packing the move.  This small hand-blown glass creamer was my mother's, and she kept it on a window sill where the sun would shine through it.  I used to see it along with the the other glass pieces in the window when I came to visit.  I thought the natural colors of the blueberries would enhance the composition, and placing it all on an orange background makes for a very cheerful image!  Original oil, 7 x 5 inches $100 from the dailypaintings.com website for this day.

August 14 - Paint Tubes

"Tools of the Trade" Moving has surfaced some interesting tools from the studio depths--these two old tubes of oil paint ended up on the taboret for immortalizaiton before being boxed up and sent to the back of the pickup truck for the move. Still good, these oils have probably been with me since the 70s. That Cadmium Red Medium had a price tag of $1.75! On another note, my first daily painting almost a year ago was the same subject matter--different tube, though. Original Oil, 5x7 $100

August 13 - Red Wine, Cabernet

Time for a glass of wine, time to relax and enjoy the long day's progress in the move.  A pickup full of artwork, canvases, furniture, and books.  Then we spent the hot part of the day working around inside the place, earning the rich reward of a great bottle of wine upon our return home.  I poured 3/4 glass of this cabernet-sauvignon 2004 and looked at the glow of the rich red color... toasted my spouse and headed for the studio.  This is a 6 x 4 oil, and is still around, although the wine is gone! 
SOLD to Nancy Merrill's collection of Salt Lake City, Utah.

August 12 - Tomatoes

Ah, the tomatoes of summer!  Are there any other fragrances so connecting us to the earth than the sun-warmed scents of a freshly picked, ripe tomato?  Here are three of them, garden fresh, and awaiting addition to the salad of the day.  I ate one of them earlier, right out of my hand, and the flavor is incomparable to anything bought in the store, no matter what time of year.
SOLD to Nancy Merrill's collection of Salt Lake City, Utah.

August 11 - Tug of War (Buckskin Horse)

Today's painting is a 12 x 12 oil, from material I took at the trials over at San Juan Capistrano a while back.  I did a lot of photo reference of the "backstretch" area, full of grooms, horses waiting for riders and action in the background.  One of the nicely colored horses (buckskin) was playing tug o'war with his groom's cleaning rag, waiting for the rider to come and mount up for the class.  A breeze kicked up, and I just loved the tail and flapping horse clothes!  Now don't get after me about the rear views here, I do like both of 'em!

  Available for $425.

August 10 - Bing Cherries

Bing Bang, Badda Boom!  That's what cherries do for me!  These luscious dark Bing cherries came home tonight with the groceries and asked to be immortalized forever before disappearing as dessert tonight.  Entitled "Protection", this painting brings more to the eye and mind than just three cherries.  Note the position and the location of the stems.  Do you see the story in the title?   Fun, like life--full of temptations and interesting challenges.  Original 5 x 7 oil
JUST SOLD to Patricia Harris of Ragley, Louisiana.

August 9 - Green Revisited

Cleaning out the studio for the move brought this 12 x 16 oil to daylight. Not quite a frisbee,  I had so many good comments on the last "green machine" painting that I thought you'd enjoy the changes wrought to this one, too.  You can probably guess my creative energy is focused not on creating completely new work this week, but in moving an entire studio from Point A to Point B. A smaller canvas than the first "de-greened" one, this was a plein air painting done on location back in 2000.  

  You can see the original version here, well buried on the web site here.

My goodness, what six years can do to an artist!  I'm sure you'll enjoy the first one ("But it was so GREEN that day!", I'd have told you.) and now this one, where I've laid the color system over it to bring it to a much better painting.  I sure like the color on the new one!  What green???? Enjoy! Same price, $225  

 Reinforces for me the certainty that paintings will ALWAYS get better. 

August 8 - Misty Hunt

"Misty Hunt"  It is so much "fun" to pack. Truly an adventure of discovery! I'm finding in my archives some paintings not on the web site--some starts that I never finished, and some I think are candidates for frisbee championships! (That means they'll go some distance before hitting the dirt of the pasture!)  Today's painting is one I started as a demonstration painting in Kentucky a year or so ago, during a workshop. I was asked to depict mist using my color system.  It came back with me, unfinished, a 9 x 12, and never saw the light of day after that.  Today, as I was packing a box of 9 x 12s, it popped up and said, "I'm ready to be finished now."  

  So here he is, the mist and the hounds, two riders, and trees.  $375 unframed.

August 7 - Morning Sycamores

In packing up some paintings today, I came across this painting which is on my site here:

Now, this is not a new one, and I know I painted it with the five-colors-plus-white I had been using for almost three years before becoming frustrated and desirous of a new color system that would work in all lighting situations.  

  It is fun to revisit "old" work, as you grow as an artist.  The painting never really pleased me, because of the overwhelming greens in the scene.  However, had you asked me about it, I'd have whined, "But that's what I SEE!" and continue to dip into the green to capture the trees, grasses and what not.

  I know now that painting a green scene isn't about painting greens, but is about how NOT to paint too much of green to really get the green to play a leading role.  So I pulled out the oils, and set to work, with the end result being the painting below.  It makes me happy to know I have grown enough to recognize the need for change.

  Yes, they are the same paintings!  16 x 20 oil, $440.

August 6 - Two Trees, Ventura

"Two Trees, Ventura" I love Ventura.  It has always been the precursor and gateway to the drive up to Ojai.  There is a landmark that has been famous since the 1700s when the Spaniards first sailed into the sheltering harbor.  On the top of one of the hills above the town is a place where two oak trees grow.  The Spaniards looked for them out on the ocean, because they knew the safe harbor was below. They are venerable and treasured landmarks.  I, too, always look for them above the city, as it is a comforting welcome, familiar, and a constant.  I've painted them today for you in a 12 x 12 acrylic box canvas (no frame needed), as a memory of those long ago drives from Ojai to Ventura College and every trip back to my home area.  Also, in an incredible coincidence, "Two Trees"  happens to be the name of the road where we will be living if we ever get through the paperwork!  $350 from me, if I decide to sell it.  My studio will be called "Two Trees Art Studio"... if we ever close escrow.

August 5 - Egret Regret

"Egret Regret" This is a nifty acrylic, and 7x5 is a good size to fit any wall, anywhere. I love the versatility of acrylics, and this little painting is no exception. I thought I'd be painting around the town of Ojai, but the loan papers from UPS have not arrived yet (and it is after 9 p.m.) so not only did I miss my 40th reunion waiting, but we still have to find a 24-hour notary to make the signature deadline for the loan. Ah well, is there any recourse? Only to enjoy painting, and being able to do things for oneself. Relying on corporate business is not my chosen thing.
Perhaps I'll get to paint tomorrow... This little one is still available for $100, or I'll give it to anyone who can collar the UPS people and drive bamboo slivers under their name tags.
SOLD to the collection of Gayle and David Youngs of Orange, California

August 4 - Jumping Cholla Cactus

I'm up in Ventura County today, and yet I still have thoughts of the desert in my head. This 7 x 5 acrylic has a different palette from the lesson painting of the last three days, and you can see the variance of hue as well as intensity as you look at the various desert plants. The cholla, or "jumping" cactus is so named because the spines have little hooks at the end of them, and seem to jump to attach themselves to any passer-by. It is a nasty cactus to run into. Next to the cholla is what is called "Mexican Sage" or "Texas Ranger" depending upon which region you're in. It has grey-green leaves and bright yellow flowers in Spring

$100

August 3 - Lesson Painting, 36 x 48 Finished

I know you've been able to to see the progress of this painting, now it is time to enjoy the finished product! You know, I look at it here in its six inch format, and sigh, because one cannot appreciate this painting's presence any more than looking at the paintings of the Old Masters as depicted in a book. There just isn't much comparison, and this is why I so encourage everyone to go to see art on the walls of museums and on pedestals in hallways of venerable establishments. There is just no experience like standing in front of an original Rembrandt, or a Sir Lawerence Alta-Tadema or an Anders Zorn, in total awe of the execution of brushwork, the use of color, or the incredible ease of the color handling.
That said, perhaps we just ought to enjoy the painting and leave it at that. Yes, this painting is already in the hands of the design team for La Quinta. 36 x 48 inch acrylic.

August 2 - Lesson Painting, Stage 2

The human eye and mind likes areas of interest, and they also like a hierarchy of interest.  Too much the same throughout the painting, and it becomes boring.  If we keep areas of interest subordinate and dominate to one another, we create a subtle tension for the viewer to enjoy.  
  Here's a second exercise.  Turn your head on its side and look at the painting from that angle.  Got it?  See how you can now easily discern the distance put into the further range of mountains by lightening and the softening of the edges?  One doesn't notice this when it is seen "ordinarily", because we are so conditioned to see things this way--we aren't even conscious of it.
  I lightened the distant range of mountains to make them lay down for you.  (Nice doggie.)  The nearmost rocks have a greater contrast of values.  As I paint the close-up vegetation, the contrast between light and dark will increase, as well as the intensity of the colors.

August 1 - Lesson Time! 36 x 48

Lesson, Stage I
I cut the canvas from a roll of primed cotton duck, with three inches to spare on all sides so that the framing gallery can have an easy time of stretching it before they frame it up. Easier to ship to them, too!
Then I coated it with a good layer of gesso, leaving brush marks for interest, and after that dried, I took some bronze yellow (oddball acrylic) and toned the canvas. That's the yellow you see on the lower two-thirds of the image.
I looked over my William Wendt paintings, and the image sent by the decorator/designer, and then drew up my own interpretation of both.
It is odd for me to begin a painting with the sky and paint downward, but the sheer size of the canvas made normal working conditions challenging. Still, I can see the finished painting in my head, so working on any one area isn't too much of a problem. At least not if I keep reminding myself of where and what the focal point is going to be, and therefore subjugating all the rest of that huge canvas to it.
The sky is the usual suspects of Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin and Titanium White, with a touch of yellow ochre to gray the mixes. The clouds lights are Titanium and a touch of cad orange. Distant mountains are grayed versions of Ultra blue and thalo green with burnt umber and white, some of the warmer areas are tinged with yellow ochre.

July 31 - Ocatillo

"Ocotillo" This is the second half of the diptych from the marathon of painting, today I'm packing them up and shipping to the framers in Van Nuys.  The company that is stretching and framing these pieces does all the framing for the Norton Simon Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (lacma.org).  I'm in grand company!  Acrylic, 30 x 20.
I do hope those of you interested in design take these two paintings and put them side by side with about half again their width between them.  They will be flanking a large piece of furniture, and creating a continuity to the wall space.  I want you to see how the design goes between and connects even across empty space.
  The human eye tends to "fill in the blanks" when given related areas in artwork.  Ken Auster said, "Don't insult the viewer by giving them all the details.  Let them feel good by allowing them to figure stuff out."  My take on that is we are conditioned by our intelligence and experience to see things and complete the image when it is something familiar.  Our "problem" as artists is that when we paint, we focus on one area as we paint it, to the exclusion of the whole presence, and get tied down to the details in that one area.  So I say, "Let go!" and lose the non-essential areas of your work.  Squint more (reduces details to the essentials) when you look at your subject.  Let the viewer of your work enjoy the puzzle solving of finding the connections.
-to Greene and Associates

July 30 - Marathon Day!

Whew!  What a marathon day!  Not one, but TWO paintings, and both 30 x 20 inch acrylics.  A diptych, with each painting going on one side of an armoire for this La Quinta commission--the FINAL paintings!
  Tomorrow I UPS the tube of paintings (these were painted unstretched) and then sit back and twiddle my thumbs (not!) until escrow closes on the new-to-us house.  Very exciting!  We were over there today, taking pictures and meeting the owner, learning about this special house, and I took 53 photos.  I'll cobble together a web page with the details about the new studio and the site.  Turns out the entire property is surrounded by dedicated open space, county parkland!  Privacy and no close neighbors!
  The painting today is the left side painting as one-half of the two paintings.  Doing these unstretched is an interesting endeavor.  I cut the canvas with an extra three inches all around so the framer would have a lot to work with, and then used a piece of foam core to back the canvas.  It was held on the foam core with two clips at the top.  Then I put the foam core and canvas up on the easel.  It's not much different than working on a board-backed canvas.  I used an extra couple of larger clips to hold it steady and got to work.  I'd marked the canvas with a pencil delineating the edges, and then gesso'd the surface.  When I work on canvas with acrylics, I always gesso first, because that gives me a consistency of "tooth" on which to start painting.  This painting is already SOLD to Greene and Associates.

July 29 - Oak Savannah

"Oak Savannah Evening" is an 18 x 24 inch acrylic, showing a full range of color and bathed in the warmth of the evening light.  The quercus agrifolia, or Coastal Live Oak, is a common native to the grasslands of the plateaus of the coastal mountains and valleys of California.  We have one here on our acreage, possibly 400 years old.  Gnarled and with small spined leaves, deer and goats enjoy browsing the lower branches.  I painted this with layers of color, developing the deep values of the tree and shadow areas, and making passes of lighter colors to develop the sunlit areas and details.  Using acrylics this way allows the viewer's eye to travel deeply into the painting while remaining in a small visual area.  The depth of the layers creates interesting interactions of color transparency, which is one of the major reasons I enjoy using them.  Available for $350 as an 18 x 24
This painting is SOLD to Dee and Dick Staley of Lake Elsinore, California.

July 28 - Rocks, another decorator commission

This is the third and final 16 x 20 painting for the hallways of the new facility over in La Quinta who's name is a mystery to me (they said if I knew more they'd have to kill me), and now I need to begin two 30 x 20 deserts for either side of a large armoire (sp?).  I cannot conceive of how this place is going to look, so I'm certainly going to make a point to go see it, or at least have someone over in the desert take some pictures for me, after they're installed.
  When this weekend is over, I can get back to "regular" painting, focusing on some new color work, the paintings for the next DVDs, and just "relax" back into equine paintings.  Of course, August has a high school reunion (toomany years, y'know) and my birthday's coming up soon.
 
I really enjoyed painting this one, as I hauled out the high solid gels to texture up the brush marks, and that lent itself well to the rocks.  This painting is SOLD to Greene and Associates.

July 27 - Ocatillo Desert

I got a bit side-tracked today, we went and looked at a house that set off all the bells and whistles for both of us, and we have been doing the scrambling to get paperwork in order to make the "offer they can't refuse".
  It's a buyer's market now, mostly, so we'll have to wait and see if everything works out.  However, I pulled back and painted a 5 x 7 acrylic today because of all the interruptions to the normal procedures.  It's a nice one, though, with the grays and softness of the Southwest desert light.  Although small, it definitely has a warm and colorful feeling. This one IS for sale.  $100.
This painting has been SOLD to the collection of Berta Strulovici of Philadelphia.

July 26 - Another Decorator Commission

Today's painting is a 16 x 20 acrylic, destined (just received the approval) to be sited in an entry of this project in La Quinta, along with two others.  it is one of those scenes found in the Coachella Valley in the evening--sunlight and the green of the fields below the mountains. I have such a deadline to meet, that I feel some pressure (as if painting every day with a new one to show you wasn't pressure--well, it isn't.  But I digress.)
  I sense the pressure extrinsically rather than from within, as having to do work for another's expectations and with a definite timeline is always challenging.  But as artists, isn't the challenge--the puzzle--what drives us to paint?  I know that's a major factor in my work.  There's the puzzle of the design, what works, what doesn't.  The puzzle of how to make it all work together so the painting doesn't look like a couple of jig saw pieces got into the mix.  The puzzle of how to make the viewer stay within the design, and directed on the path I have to figure out while creating.  As your eyes wander over this painting, make a note of where your gaze rests, where your eyes go next.  Those are paths in design intentionally made for you.  To ignore paths is to either confuse your viewers or create disinterest.  A good book for learning about visual paths is Edgar Payne's Composition in Landscape Painting.
This painting is already SOLD to Greene and Associates.

July 25 - Evening Palm

It is nice to sit down after a long day with a glass of White Merlot (Sutter Home) and a couple slices of smoked provolone as the evening closes in with the quiet and velvety thick dark.   I prepare to close up the studio for the night.  The weather has been so brutally hot, the only way I can get any decent work done in there is to literally go jump in the pool and come back inside soaking wet.  I completed one of the seven paintings for the commissions for the La Quinta job, and this one is the second one off the easel.  I apologize for the image quality--it is 30 x 20 inches, and I couldn't get consistent light on it tonight.  Maybe it is the wine?...but I think it's the size of it. 
SOLD to Sally Green and Associates, Interior Decorators

July 24 - A Figurative Work

Do you think an artist ever truly "arrives"?  By that I mean achieve all their creative goals?  I don't think so.  Every time I reach a new level of knowledge in my technique, a new challenge presents itself. This is good, both for me and for artists reading this.  Many of you have emailed kind words of enthusiasm about my work, and of course I am grateful.  But even an artist who seems to make it look easy has challenges.  That's part of what this art creating is all about.  One can never "arrive"!  We are all on a journey to different destinations, with the destination constantly moving!  Frustrating?  Only if you focus on the destination instead of all the beautiful points along the way.  One of the reasons I don't get intimidated by a blank canvas is because I always see it as a step on my journey, not a performance on the platform of the destination.  It's all in the attitude you bring to the easel.  Am I learning, or performing?  Yesterday's painting opened a door to new thoughts about edges and space, and now I will be following a different destination's path on controlling more of the execution of those elusive edges for better paintings.  "It never ends." When applied to things other than art, that would elicit a sigh.  I have a huge grin on my face!

Today's painting is a 6 x 6 gallery-wrap oil, and just a bit of fun.  Called "In the Park" it shows a man and his dog, both taking what we call "practice naps".  Perhaps he was at an obedience trial?  Or retired and just enjoying the day in the park.  No matter who or why, the scene is timeless, and tinged with humor.  Those of you looking for some learning, notice the gradual transition from intense foreground colors with high contract between light and shadow, versus the distant areas, made clearly so because of less contrast, and less color intensity.

July 23 - Second Plein Air, Virgas

"Virgas" I have been told that when rain falls out of a cloud and doesn't reach the ground, that phenomenum is called a virga. Last night we had a bunch of them as the thunder and lightning moved away, and the evening light showed through the storm clouds in a glory of sunset glow that was changing as fast as I could paint it. This is the second canvas of the "Sitting Outside in the chair at the Opening" paint session while it was so hot. It is a 7 x 5 inch oil, and I feel it realy captures that light in the sky at this time of day. $100

July 22 - Plein Air Again

"Remnants of the Storm" Tonight was the gallery opening of "Au Naturel", the group show of the Plein Air Artists of Riverside (PAAR), from 6 to 9 pm.  Showing about 50 pieces, it was diverse and yet a collection of very good plein air work.  It was HOT, however, I mean the temperature.  Today it ranged from 108 to 112 in our area with 38-45% humidity, and rotund thunderstorms marched across the skies, thwacking lightning and big winds around like an upset, overweight shopper.
  We dodged one storm on our way in, but ran smack dab through another one to get to the show.  I brought my oils, in my smaller plein air setup, and braved the storm and heat by sitting outside to do a couple little 7 x 5 canvases.  The air was fresh, and although it felt like "breathing soup" (love that line), I managed to do two paintings before the light left.  Today's is the first, showing the clouds and the changing sky as the sun approached the horizon.  Those of you familiar with my color system will know exactly where each color went, and why.  But I broke one rule, and you might see it in the darker values of the clouds.  
  Sold to new collector Charlotte McDavid of Birmingham, Alabama.

July 21 - New Book Out!

Here's a bit of news! I have a new book coming out in August from Walter Foster, which is in kit form with the paints right along with the lessons! I was searching on the web for links to and from my site, and found that Walter Foster has taken six of the lessons from my Horses in Acrylics book and printed this lessons-with-supplies book! Geared for the beginning painter in acrylics, this is a hardbound book due to hit Amazon.com and other art book stores next month. So your daily painting is on the cover of this book--it was a 12 x 16 acrylic, and is SOLD to Lynda Sappington, another author who also sculpts horses who I'm honored to call a friend. You can find out more about this book here. (Opens a new window.)

July 20 - Aussie Dog Commission Finished

Well, here's Roper, finished and hopefully pleasing the Wood family. If one chooses to do commissioned work, as I do oftentimes, one always has the knowledge that as an artist, you are painting to a memory. That can be really difficult, because  you in your artist-mode look at the imagery supplied see the possibilities based upon your training and experience. Yet in the head of the people asking you to do this is a complex idea of what was, or what they remember, having changed what was to "fit" their own perceptions.   

I enjoy doing commissions, because I believe my abilities lie in being able to get inside the source material, to find the real "life" in the animal (or person). So far, I've been either lucky, or people are too afraid of my reputation to come back and say, "Um, Elin, I hate to say this, but our beloved Pookie's eyes weren't crossed." But they'll always be a first time.

Maybe I get away with a lot because I'm such a loose painter.  Artists whose work is needle tight tend to attract the jobs that we artists like to call "commissions from Hell", because the people like to see every freckle and hair in place. I'd never make it in those circles!

July 19 - Australian Shepherd Commission

Today's painting is the beginning stages of a commissioned piece, of a beloved Australian Shepherd, owned by Judy and Bill Wood of Canada.  I'm including two of the photographs I'm using for source material, and also making changes depending upon the request of the family for whom I'm painting this.
  I tend to "grope" at this phase, making things out of proportion because in the second pass of this 16 x 12 oil, I'll really find the edges I need, and make the corrections.  Please don't write and tell me the dog's face is all 'wrong"... I'll fix that tomorrow!
  You can see the major color areas at this point, but the painting does not have the "life" I like to bring to posthumous portraits yet.  Tomorrow, if all goes well, it will.
Not for Sale.

July 18 - Dozing (Appaloosa Horse)

"Dozing" Today we have a little exercise in color, working out some details for perhaps a larger painting,  This tricolor Appaloosa is dozing in the heat of a day, full of the humidity we have been experiencing lately.  It's a 6 x 6 acrylic on gallery wrap, and just seems to ooze that sleepy time of day.  Must be because I'm kinda tired tonight?
  Those of you looking to learn something, note the values.  Take it into a photo editing program and take out the color (desaturate) and look at the values, where the contrast is strongest, the movement of darks to keep you in the painting.  It is also a complimentary color scheme, blue/orange. $100 via Paypal or through my Daily Paintings web site.

July 17 - Downtown Idyllwild

Today's painting is another acrylic.  I really need to switch the taboret around and get back to oils, but oh! I do love the acrylics, too!  This is a little 5 x 7 view down the main street of the mountain community of Idyllwild, looking toward the landmark Lily Rock, same one I painted in different light a few days ago.  I have done this scene on location in a larger format, and it was fun to revisit it with only a rather poor photo I took at the time.  When you have lousy source material, it really takes you to task to produce something more from your core.  I heard a quote today on National Public Radio that sort of fits:  "Sometimes you just have to take the leap and create the wings on your way down."  Doesn't that clearly describe what painting can be?  It doesn't work for tax records, but it can be a lot of fun when you just KNOW you've flown before, to pick up those brushes without a hint of wings, and be soaring by the time the painting is finished.
SOLD to new collectors Bert and Peg Hall of Roseville, California.

July 16 - Lesson Paianting Finished, "Moonlight"

"Moonlight on the Water" Here is the mid-month lesson painting, all finished now. You can compare the two images right next to one another and see the improvements. With such a good beginning, the second time spent with the work is mostly about edges. The entire painting was painted over completely in this pass, adding interest to larger areas with variations of color and brush work, yet the weight and importance of each transition and edge was considered to maintain the hierarchy of edges--subordination to the most important ones--near the focal point. Adding the lighter green grass between the moon and its watery reflection creates a wonderful feeling of distance and softness to the scene.

Completely out of my head, this 12 x 16 on board can be purchased. $225 (Sale Pending)