Sep 14 - A Win and A Show

It's finished. Just exactly what I wanted it to be, with enough detail to keep the viewer interested in all areas of the image. And yet with a focal point that sneaks up on you--because of the mist and the closeness of values in that area. This 24 x 36 oil is available for $1200 although right now I don't want to sell it. (It is now sold, sorry!)

How fun to finally pull one off that really says my art is going somewhere. I'm on a roll, expanding my thinking and yet paying homage to those who have gone before. In this case, it is Lanford Monroe, an East Coast artist who passed away at the young age of 50, and who was a stellar painter of the woods and Rockies--her husband printed a book of her work, called Homefields, and you can find it on line. I regret not knowing her while she was alive, but that is as it must be. Her ability to both tell a story and paint beautiful landscapes will live on forever because of his labor of love.

On another note, I was honored to receive Best in Show at the Maloof Foundation opening last night. As they were naming artists' names, I celebrated each one, for I know their work and it is an honor to be hanging with them. Then first place, going to my friend Pat Ford, and finally the wait for the highest honor.... and the judge called my name! Here is the painting--it is one I did while at the Santa Rosa Plateau, near the Vernal Pools, and is an 8 x 10 oil.

The judge said it had that extra "spark" she seeks in plein air work, and I'm hoping she was refering to the color!!

Tonight I was at the Riverside Art Museum plein air painting while a great event was going on--Several of the best restaurants and wineries in the Riverside area brought out samples of their fare and we had music and painters while folks enjoyed the cuisine and libation. I painted two 12 x 16 canvases in the three hours, and you'll see one of them tomorrow. The music was great!

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Sep 13 - Important Lesson on the Color System!

I was working on the 24 x 36 canvas this morning, and also working on putting together the Flash Cards packets, and was immediately struck by something (no, not literally!). Of course my painting is morning light--I knew that when I began it. I know the Color System so well that I didn't need to have support material with me. But as I looked at the morning light Flash Cards, I realized you might enjoy seeing the cards in action. So for your lesson today, I put two of the Morning Light Flash Cards by the painting to show you what I found.

On the right is the Morning Light Flash Card with the red pear intact. That's one you get with the set. On the left is the same card with the red pear desaturated (love Photoshop!). I desaturated it for two reasons--one, there is no inherently RED object in my landscape, and more importantly, I wanted the lesson to go home to you as clearly as possible. The lesson? Stick to the colors on the Flash Cards, and you'll get great color! Wow...

Notice how the left card just blends into the canvas? The colors of morning light are clearly shown in my painting, and hopefully clearly understood when you see the card. I'm hoping that you'll use these Flash Cards as you paint, and that the cards will end up being small "companions" for your paintings! You'll know you've "nailed it" when the card just "belongs" with the painting.

Now, if I'd had a red object in the painting, then it would also harmonize with the right card.

This afternoon I head out for the Sam Maloof Foundation for the Plein Air Artists of Riverside's show (I have two paintings in it). I'll take along some of my flash cards and see if I can figure out who painted what time of day!! Now there's an idea.... I'm going to take a set to my next museum visit and look at some of the Impressionists and Tonalist paintings.

The first sets have started to arrive--I just received this from Gabriel Baber in Temecula, "Ok Elin..you really did it this time. Great brainchild..Awesome idea with the flash cards. I am excited to have them..Thanks for getting them to me so quickly. Those of us that are visual people..do much better with the color images than all the words. "

I'm so pleased they are helping people already!

I'll finish up this painting for you tomorrow.

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Sep 12 - Moving right along with the Landscape

I've had some interesting responses to the posting from yesterday, and want to address them here, as this painting is special for its misty light. Right now the sky reads as warm, but I need to share with you that the underpainting for this was done with a thin wash of a warm and a cool--to make a neutral. The two colors mixed for the underpainting wash were untramarine blue and australian red gold.

At this point in the painting, there are NO pure warms anywhere. So the neutral sky area reads warm because of the proximity to the cools elsewhere--temperature contrast. It's amazing what colors do in relation to other colors. Ovanes Berberian once said, "A color has no temperature until it is next to another color." At the time, I didn't understand that. In growing into the Color System, I see it more and more, based upon the certainty of the colors I'm using to create cool and/or warm vistas. Again, the source material:

I also need to stress that there is no mixture in the work that isn't less than three hues/colors. This is how one gets those marvelous, harmonious grays. The source material is a lot greener than the painting--if I painted to that (the "match" instead of lighting a fire on my canvas!), I'd be using a lot more duo mixes--ultramarine and yellow ochre or the cool yellow. But each of my mixes is THREE or more colors from the cool box. Try it!

Now you know the "famous sky trio" will do those sky patches, and more details will be added, yet it doesn't look too shabby at this point. Maybe I'll finally do a painting that avoids the "Uglies"!

And I apologize for yesterday's misprint on the link for the Flash Cards. I've fixed it and it is HERE. I've been filling the many orders, and am so happy that I bit the bullet and have enough to fill all of them. Over 50 sets went out in the mail last night!

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Sep 11 - Continuing the Landscape, and the Flash Cards are HERE!

Oh, my! Thank you for your response to the Color System Flash Cards! I'm prepping envelopes and Alberto will be here today to fill and send them off for you. It was wonderful to be able to offer them at a much lower price than I originally thought. I do hope that some of you will let me know what you think of them--a mini review?

Here's the next 45 minutes on this canvas... mixing cools and dark values to fill in the "framework" of the composition, and then putting in the middle distance (mid-ground) ultramarine blue affected grasses. No details at this stage. Again, I'm just covering the canvas! Although I sometimes feel a tweaking need to slip into the warm boxes, I curtail it and instead mix up other hues that still read "cool". Almost every mix is more than two colors, too. That grays down the overall "feel" of the painting, and if I add any warms, they'll only be enhanced by the cooler hues.

Source material again for your enjoyment:

You can see, that although my warm boxes are completely "out of the picture" (HA... Pun!) the differences between the colors in the painting and the colors in the photograph are already diverging. This is why I absolutely love painting and the Color System, because it gives me much better choices than just those in the source material.

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Sep 10 - Starting a Large Landscape with Critters

Paintings follow me around... tapping me on my shoulder and whispering, "You need to paint me." This 24 x 36 inch oil came from a photograph I took while in Georgia earlier this year (see below) and what intrigued me about it is the soft, misty light and value structure.

So of course I close up my warm boxes and know that over 85% of this painting will be in the cools. The initial lay-in is to establish the abstract structure, and decide where I want the viewer's eye to go. My initial idea is to put some horses out in the distant pasture, yet create a texturally interesting foreground to allow the viewer to enjoy the journey. The small watercourse is a pathway around the tree and counteracts the lean it has.

Here's the source material:

And on the Flash Cards, they are printed! Still at the printers, they need to be cut, so I pick them up tomorrow at noon! Now you can order them, since I've seen the finals, and am very pleased with how they have turned out. I've set up a special PayPal and text order form on my web site... HERE.
Or you can cut and paste the link below.
http://www.elinart.com/pages/flashcards.html
No more waiting!

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Sep 5 - Forgot the Swatch on the Cow

Yesterday I was so excited about the Flash Cards that I forgot to add the swatch of the cow for you to see that purple! But sometimes thing happen this way, so I can explain more fully why something works for me. And so it is. Here's a circle from the shoulder of the cow, against a neutral gray background. Can you identify the colors? The painting is here, too, smaller, to refresh your memory.

Training the eye to "get it right" when you mix colors takes time, and a neutral gray area around one's colors can truly assist in identifying the colors. That's why on my taboret, both my glass acrylic and oil palettes are sitting on top of gray painted wood. With each mixing of colors, I have made my job of identifying the colors that much easier. Look at the same circle below, surrounded by white. All you see is the circle, and we miss the beautiful variations of color within the circle. The color is dominated by the value contrast, plain and simple.

Working on a high value white palette will make you change your colors to be lighter than they need to be, because of that contrast issue. And your eyes will tire quickly as they adjust constantly between the color and that high-value white. The palettes of the old masters and many seasoned painters are a patina of every color--which equates to.... you guessed it!.... GRAY. I like a clean palette, so painting the wood underneath gray solved the dilemma for me.

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Sep 4 - How Now, Purple Cow? Moonlight

A purple cow doesn't look purple when it is painted in moonlight, but it truly is. You can see that by isolating the color and putting it on a neutral gray background. (See below for the swatch from the cow's shoulder.)

Knowing how to paint something that is white (or black, or both) during different times of day is the whole concept about the Time of Day Color System. It requires practice, and most importantly, THINKING to get great color every time.

I did this 12 x 16 inch oil painting as a demonstration piece for moonlight during the workshop in Sebastopol a week ago, and then left it in the camper when I returned. Hmmmm, I wonder how many other paintings are sitting up on a shelf to be discovered later?

I received the first color proof on the Flash Cards... they are going to look great! Some minor tweaking on my end to get the colors spot on, and then we're going to do the print run. I had originally scheduled only 100 sets to be done, but know from your response that I need to do a much larger quantity. For that, I thank you so much. I hope you'll get a LOT of information from them, and you're going to be the first to know when I have them in my hands! Here are six of the seven fronts of the cards--can you identify the different times of day? (The cards will have some helpful text for those color bands along the bottom.)

They look a little silly all lined up like this...

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Sep 3 - Sam Maloof, Woodworker and His Gardens

On location painting at a very special site, I finished this 12 x 16 oil on a summer afternoon a couple weeks back. I bring it to you today, because the original painting is hanging at the Maloof Foundation in Alta Loma (you can google Sam Maloof for an enlightening introduction to an American icon of furniture making.)

The Plein Air Artists of Riverside have been invited to show our works, and many include scenery from the lovely gardens and buildings of his Foundation for preserving the craftsmanship of fine woodworking.

When I looked around for something to paint, I was captivated by the contrast of the umbrella with the shadowed area behind it, and the lively ribbon streamers that are a characteristic of the grounds. Everything about the site speaks of quality hand-made craftsmanship, including the native stone walls and the beautifully constructed wood buildings.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sam a year ago, and he is a wonderfully modest and gentle man. In his 90s now, he still works on furniture designs with the help of apprentices in his workshop. Oh, if I could only afford one of his chairs!

My painting has been selected for various publicity for the show, which opens with a reception at the Maloof Foundation on September 13. The art life goes on!

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Sep 2 - Dog Commission Finished

Here's the finished commission of the two dogs, and the collector loved it! I delivered it still wet in places, and he said I captured the personalities of the pooches with perfection of paintbrush (well, that's my interpretation!). The dog on the right is reserved in nature, and the one on the left is constantly happy and a bit goofy.

Getting that inherent personality is very essential to doing commissions, and I try my best to get it. The location is important for the client, too--the front porch is where they spend time and the positions are also characteristic, down to the twisted paws on the shy dog.

It was fun going from the cools of the area near the front door into the warms as the foreground came toward the viewer. And painting the tongue with alizarin and white seems to break the rules, but if you recall the lessons about human skin, dog's tongues follow the same rule. The learning never ends, does it?

I had a question from one of my friends who receives my blog, about how I handle messy cleanup in the studio, and thought you might enjoy seeing my solution. I purchased from SimpleHuman, a covered trash bin that uses plastic grocery bags. The cover keeps any brush cleaning solvent odors in check, and the bags are ubiquitous, so I never run out. I have two of these trash bins, one at either end of my taboret. Light weight, they hang from the end, and it is a simple matter to toss in the soiled towels and other debris.
The ingenious device also has storage for extra bags below it. Here's a link if you'd like more info. Thinking outside the box again, this was originally designed to go under the kitchen sink.

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Sep 1 - Dog Commission, First Lay In

Here's the big blocking in of major values when starting commissions... not my usual "make the background beautiful first", and that's because the dogs' bodies constitute much of the background --look how MUCH there is of them. The noses, eyes, paws 'n' claws will be the focal points, so I really am working on the "background" at this point.

The client has seen this image and approves it, with the admonition that the left dog "always" has his mouth open.

Now, the client doesn't understand the painting process, so a reaction like that is normal. They can only measure what's in front of them against their internal vision of the desired product, so they usually will focus on some area that hasn't been started yet.

I had a bit of fun and good news today. As part of my ongoing marketing plan, I get notified automatically when my web sites are linked and information about me is elsewhere than just my sites. This came through from widgetbox.com, telling me that my daily paintings widget is the "Most Popular" for people to add to their desktop! I'm so pleased! Here's the way it came in:


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Aug 31 - Dog Commission Phase I

So how does a commission happen? The usual procedure is that I'm approached by someone who has seen my work online, and they have a desire to have a painting done in my "style", yet with their animals in the composition.

This two-dog commission came to me that way, after handing my postcard-business card out along the way. The pile of photos to the left are the requested imagery I need to create a composite image of what the client wants. I seldom have a "perfect" image from which to work, and one of my strengths is design--the ability to create a good composition from a multitude of source material. It is a worthy skill to acquire, and skill it is.... anyone can get it with enough practice!

The initial sketch on the canvas is below. I've placed the two dogs with the characteristic pose that the client wants, and I've quickly drawn in with a brush the placement. I did do a small thumbnail sketch to define the negative space around the dogs--again, designing the composition. The client hasn't seen this yet. This stage would only confuse, with no value contrast to help the non-artist "see" the direction I'm going.

The shadow in the image on the top is my easel. More tomorrow!

On another note, one of my two panels is in place on the Mural Mosaic of the Horse, in process. I had panels 216 and 136, but although they have both, only one is viewable in the assemblage.

The official unveiling of the completed mural will be on September 3. You can see the almost finished mural--a combination of over 300 equine artists' collaboration at this link:
http://www.muralmosaic.com/Cadeau.html

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Aug 30 - The Boy Finished

Although this accidentally went out before it was supposed to, I did further editing and here it is again.

It was a quick matter to put the finishing touches on this canvas while teaching in Sebastopol's workshop. The sailboat just fell into the composition, and made a complete story. I even like that the mast is a bit bent, like things in life--showing character!

The shadow on the sails was done with yellow ochre and the "usual suspects" of ultramarine blue and white. I drilled into the students' heads that over half of all shadows are made from the sky trio--ultramarine blue, alizarin and yellow ochre in some proportions, and it is in evidence here.

I hope you've enjoyed this lesson painting. It is available as I write this, although at $220 through PayPal, it might be gone before long.

The long-awaited Color System Flash Cards are AT THE PRINTER!!! I'll be proofing them in a few days, and THEN they'll be printed! Yippee! You all will be the first to know when they're in my hands.
Here's a sample of the back of one of them (the cards will be much larger):

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Aug 29 - The Beach Boy, Further Along

This image of the painting shows my source material... a kid sitting on the sand with a plastic cup making piles. As with most photography, the color leaves a lot to be desired. In the composition, I turned his body a bit so it appears that we are looking more down on him. I also made him a bit older than the five or six he appears to be. I wanted a child of about eleven, just before puberty, and then the sailboat takes on significant meaning as the boy grows up into a young man on his journey through life.

At the bottom of today's image is the warm box of the pillbox system that is integral to the Color System. Note that the colors are set up by value! That's a great help when making choices about how to lighten or darken a color. No black in the Color System, and better choices than only white for going lighter.

You asked for more images of my "boy" Chiron? Here's one, showing his Iberian heritage. Only little white coronet bands on his back legs, hardly noticeable. He's going to be a treat to train into an awesome saddle horse. My last horse was a Spanish breed as well--a Peruvian Paso, and he and I started together when he was only five months.



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Aug 28 - The Beach Boy, Continued

With the figure blocked in, it was time to work on the rest of the canvas. I like the angle of the boy being intersected by the shoreline, creating some tension and interest, instead of doing the "horizontal ocean mambo" with a flat horizon line out there.

Any time one can choose a dynamic composition over a placid horizontal one, it creates interest in the finished work. Diagonals create design tension.

In the ocean, I'm using good' ol' ultramarine blue (the workhorse) and in the sands, I used the warm complementary mix of thalo blue and cad red light, with white. There's a bit of ultra blue in there, too... Keeps it cool and wet looking. The boy will be playign with a sail boat, but that will come in much later.

Here's my birthday present, at four months.... finally fulfilling my life-long dream to own one of the most magnificent of horses--an Andalusian! This Spanish horse breed is thousands of years old, and is from the Iberian area of Spain. My boy is not going to go grey as many of them do, because he has not one white hair on him--meaning he will stay dark (which is more uncommon). His registered name is Chiron EP, and if you know Greek mythology, Chiron was the centaur god. He'll be coming home to me in October. We'll begin the journey of training him--called "ground work"--as soon as he arrives. I love a project!


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August 27 - One from a Workshop

In one of the earlier workshops I taught this year, the question came up about how to deal with the Color System and human skin.

Now, I know there are many, MANY "rules" about painting human skin, and confusion reigns. What I have found in working with the translucent nature of skin with the underlying blood of a living organ, the way to make it come to life is to "flip the boxes" in the Color System. Use warms in the shadows and cool mixes in the lights. Eeek!!

I started this boy on a beach to demonstrate this for a workshop. I originally planned to only do the figure (not my normal method) and finish it later. But I worked it through the material I had on hand and almost finished it back in March. The canvas went with me to Sebastopol, and I finished it up there.

The area of transition between the light and shadow has to have the most intense coloration to continue to convince the viewer that skin is translucent and alive. This is a 9 x 12 oil, and its progress and source material will continue tomorrow.

On another note, here I am celebrating my big sixtieth birthday at Medieval Times last month--and still losing those excess pounds with Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution. I've never felt better! My sister is a card artist, and I'm showing off one of her creations.

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August 26 - Back from the Workshop!

I've returned from a wonderful five days up in Northern California, teaching the Color Boot Camp workshop and doing a demonstration for the ASW painting group in Sebastopol, about 30 minutes north of San Francisco. What fun! Great group, and the workshop was full of laughter and "head-hurts" with the Color System knowledge going in. Many made great strides towards/into good color choices for the time of day they were painting.

The demonstration paintings I did during the workshop and meeting are examples of my evolving style in how I want to have my art appear after the hiatus of last two months. It's been wonderful to reach into the oils with such certainty about how I want the end painting to be.

It's easy to admit that artists grow and change, but perhaps not so exciting to know that other artists also go through this. Above is a painting I did back in 2005, and one I brought to the workshop to show evening light as it can be done on location. I knew the Color System in '05, but hadn't refined it enough to "pull it off" every time. That's typical of newbies to the CS, because it takes a while before the Color System can be involved in every one of your color choices. I was still relying on the "good ol' choices" because they were familiar.

While in the workshop, I told the students what I was going to do to the painting, and then did it. The changes are subtle, perhaps, but the overall painting has been "stepped up a notch". Here's the finished work.


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July 8 - Update and the Mosaic Project

I've been busy and quiet lately! Having fun painting a couple of horses for the Mural Project for Le Cheval ("the horse"). Here is the first of two I've sent off to them, both are acrylics. The panels measure approximately 18" on a side, and the artist must follow the guidelines for value and color to achieve the finished work. Mine was a challenge, but no more so than the others you can see here. Mine are not in place yet... numbers 136 and 216. Perhaps when you get this, the folks in charge will have put it up.
I know that I could not follow the Color System, or pull out the stops to make this painting my own, but I enjoyed the diversion from the other things I've been doing.

One of those things is to radically respond to the gas prices. I bought a smaller transportation vehicle--here's an image of it, complete with the two Teddy Roosevelt terriers, Onslow and Sparky. Getting 70 mpg is great! This was taken in our driveway.

And the other news is that I'm much thinner than what you see there--dropped 18 pounds, and still going. (Hey, that IS a helmet in my lap!!) I highly recommend the book, "Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution" to take the weight off and keep it off. He presents a logical reason why our genetic code makes us unhealthy and chubby as we age. I'm winning, and I hope you will too!

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June 12 - June 12 - Rowdy's Memorial Service, Later This Afternoon

She may be gone from her friends and from this earth, but I know in my heart that she will be close for those who knew her and see this portrait. I'm through with it now, and it was as though in painting her, I was releasing my connection to my loss. That sounds selfish to say, but please know that to me, letting go is one of the most powerful and freeing events one can have. It's a closure.

You can see from the finished portrait that I did nothing to erase the life she lived, and it is fairly easy to see her approximate age. This was intentional--Rowdy made no bones about her life and character, and my mission as an artist is to not gussie up the people I paint by doing the "cosmetic surgery" thing with my brushes. I painted her strength, and yet I think I also captured her gentle spirit.

I'm chuckling, though, because Rowdy would have hated to be painted and I have to say I thought I could hear her yelling at me while I was doing it! This painting will be publicly displayed only once, this afternoon, at March Field Air Museum, where her memorial will be held. She worked there as a volunteer coordinator and loved the planes!

A 20 x 18" acrylic on canvas, it will be in the loving hands of Ruth and Ace Atkinson in their new home in Tijeras, New Mexico, next month.

For those of you who have lost loved ones, I offer a small book by Ted Menten, "Gentle Closings, How to Say Goodbye to Someone You Love" as a way to get through the hard times. It has helped me immensely in the loss of both parents, and allows me to gently understand what we feel when we've be left.

In talking about this portrait, the finishing layers of paint show best in the white garb of her "gi", and in the layers that are in her hair. There truly isn't a better way to see how I paint in acrylics if you'll spend time seeing those layers that end up looking like hair and fabric.

Today I start the mural mosaic process for my two panels. I hope I can share the procedure with you, but I've heard through the grapevine that they are asking artists not to share early images. I'll have to ask about that.

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June 11 - Rowdy's Posthumous Portrait Continues

Well, she is coming along now... I'm building the facial planes with the correct values and colors, and starting to tighten down the smile she'd get just before starting an art on the mats.

She loved her sword, and showed it to us once, and that love of the martial arts of aikido comes through in this pose. As I build this composition, I also love the subtle changes I need to make to correct something that isn't working right. The beauty of acrylics is that we have many opportunities for change by overpainting! I've corrected her sleeves, her hand positions, and especially her stance, yet there are just as many more to come.

For example, although her expression/essence is in her face, she still doesn't have her nose and eyes "right". And her white top doesn't show the underlying form well. That's coming with additional layers and glazes.

I have to laugh, knowing that my model for the fabric is Alberto, and the model for the hands on her sword was another black belt--but she was wearing rings and bracelets!! Of course, no jewelry is allowed on the mats, so I paint it out....(grin)

In a design sense, I've lightened the area on the lower quarter so that the shape of the stance she's in will be stronger with the contrast between the dark hakama (skirt) and the lighter background.

Here's an image of the March Air Museum and our mats. These four are the others with whom I train, Ron, Alberto, our sensei (teacher) Ace, and Steve. They all knew Rowdy well.



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June 10 - Laying in the large shapes, Rowdy Portrait

Here's the painting completely in the "Uglies". The features are not correct, the hair's too yellow, the hands and sword aren't realistic-looking yet.

All of this painting has been done with layers in acrylics, and it is mostly done with the cools in the cool box. The background, however, crosses over from the cools of ultramarine blue and burnt umber with the addition of thalo blue to give it some "oomph".

I will continue to layer and make corrections, fixing the attributes of the face and start to tighten down the look of her humorous half-smile. She now has on the white "gi" and the black "hakama" of the aikido practitioner, and her hands are roughly in the position for drawing the sword.

I found it interesting that at this stage, Rowdy's face seems to share the sadness of not being here--perhaps I'm painting her with my own sadness. This will evolve....

On another note, today we had triplets born to Uke, the young goat I shared with you last year. She's now a momma, and with her first kidding, triplets are amazing! And what's more amazing is how they are the spitting image of their grandmother, whom I still have. Got kids? Looks like I'll be bottle feeding them, as first freshener goats don't always have enough milk. So cute...


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June 9 - Beginning the Portrait of Rowdy, acrylic 24 x 18

The aikido community lost a profoundly accomplished and funny woman on May 25, and I have offered to do a portrait for her memorial service and to give as a gift. Rowdy Arrington Twomey was a second level black belt in aikido, and has been involved in martial arts since she was seven and living in Japan.

This is the first lay-in, and is a tough painting to start--not only for the connection I have in painting someone who was a joy to learn with and whom I considered a friend. But also because she was intensely camera shy. The photos I have for reference are...well, blooming awful. And I want to put her in the traditional garb of aikido, and of course there are no images available for that.

I've asked friends to pose to get the hands right (they'll be on her sword), and to pose her in the position of just drawing the weapon.

This is a 24 x 18 inch acrylic, and I'll share its progress in the next few days. Her memorial service will be on the 12th.

After that, I'll be working on the two mural panels for the Cheval mural mosaic.

Congratulations to Randy Smith on his acquiring the Amicalola River painting!
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May 31 - Finished up the River Acrylic

How fun to put the finishing details on a canvas that already is moving well! At this point in the painting project, I'm using my brush to bring your eye where I want it to go--having decided that the high contrast point where the big rock slips into the water is the most important place. The sharpest edge is there, the shapes of sun and shadow are repetitive (think light and dark side) and if you'll squint at the composition, you'll see that the highest contrast is at that point. Everything else is subordinate to that place--which also happens to be close to the "Rule of Thirds" (intersection of lines dividing the canvas into thirds horizontally and vertically).

The richness of the acrylics layered one upon another without negating the under layers is one of the reasons I love the medium. Just like the forest itself, made up of thousands of different layers of leaves, sunshine and shadow.

Perhaps you already see the tension created by the lack of vertical and truly horizontal lines in the composition? I wanted the illusion of time passing, and leaning diagonals create the feeling of movement through space and time, unlike strict verticals. Even the "flat" water doesn't have any true horizontals!

This 12 x 9 acrylic is available from me for $275 via Paypal, delivered to your door.

Congratulations to collector Debbie Sullivan on her purchase of the acrylic "Playing Catch" (didn't have that title back in Georgia!) depicted below.

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May 29 - Continuing the Acrylic

Here is where some of the subtle magic starts! With the additional layers of acrylic brushwork, the painting starts to get a feeling of three dimensions, much like the way we actually focus our eyes when looking at nature.

The layers of brush work over the water area are now horizontal, indicating the flow of the surface. You'll remember that first I laid down the vertical strokes to indicate the reflections on the smooth surface--now I put in the actual movement of that water with the horizontals.

Still no details... Remember, the painting has to be interesting at every stage (except for the "Uglies" when a painting has a large focal point awaiting an appearance!). This painting never had an "Uglies" stage, because there is no really strong focal point to create confusion.

On other news, I've decided to not do the June workshop here at my studio--I'm finding I need some more time to adjust to schedules and demands... I am working on a painting of a recently departed aikidoist and friend, as a gift for my teacher. I am also working on TWO panels for the Mural Mosaic project, in Canada. You can view the panels that have already been submitted for the Horse mural by visiting their site. It is fun and I'll post the project as it unfolds. I'm working on General Lee's horse Traveler as my subject. I visited his grave in Virginia a couple years ago, and really liked that horse.

And then there's the 24 x 36 waiting to be started!!

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May 28 - Plein Air Demonstration Continues

Here's the next step in the painting on location of the rocks in the Amicalola River in Dawson National Forest. In the upper tree area, I am scumbling the paint onto the dry layers to give me reference for the details that follow. I like to make large shapes and then drive them down into the smaller shapes when I use acrylics. Heck, I like to do that with oils, too! Acrylics' ability to separate the layers does create a good deal of excitement in the textures that show up as one layer goes over another. I don't like to completely obliterate what has happened in those lower layers.

The energy of the brushwork is still quite alive and well at this stage. I have not done any glazing yet. Glazing (using paint thinned with medium) will bind and unify the composition, and also tie together areas of the painting that might not be unified without it.

Notice how my brushwork direction makes pathways for your eyes to follow. Mark-making is how we as artists give the viewer much more than a source photograph.

Congratulations to new collector Fran Carson of Grand Island, Nebraska on her purchase of "The Kind Eye" (Clydesdale).

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May 24 - Lesson Painting in Acrylics - Beginning

How important is the surface on which you paint? Does it have to start out white? I think the surface preparation is very important--equivalent to a foundation on a house. The energy conveyed in the earliest brush marks target the forms that will come later. This canvas was started on location at the Amicalola River a week or so ago, while I was teaching the workshop at Fay's farm near Dawsonville, and I painted it in one standing (vs. "sitting", which I don't do much). It is a 12 x 9 acrylic, and this first pass puts down the masses of the abstract structure of the painting. I'll add many layers of paint to bring it to a finish, coming in three lessons (I think--forgot how many pictures I took!) I'm quite pleased with the painting, sitting right by my computer here. There is a great deal of energy in it. Those brush marks from the get-go have that same energy!

Here is the source material--morning light on the river, with spring leaves on the forest trees. North Georgia is surely beautiful!

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May 21 - Another from the Workshops - Mini Lesson

The soft evening light of Georgia plays across one of the many flower beds on Fay's farm becoming the subject of this plein air 7 x 5 acrylic. Using the layering that makes acrylic painting so wonderful allowed me to set up and complete this work with no additional touch-ups later in the workshop.

First placing the large dark shapes of shadows and deep shrub coloration, it was an easy matter to add additional layers, keeping the values close until the final accents were added in the iris blooms and sunlit rock wall.

I used filbert brushes to paint the entire subject. Those brushes allow such flexibility in marks to make the trunks, the broad brushwork on the foreground, and the calligraphic marks of the fence posts. They are Ruby Satins by Silver Brushes, and I really do love them!

This painting is already in the collection of Sam Gullo of Cleveland, Ohio.

Here's another view of the lovely area of the North Georgia Mountains... beautiful! Right before haying season, the fields are lush with new growth. That's one of the farm's hay storage sheds in the distance.

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May 20 - Back and Coming to Center Again

Back in California again, and after a couple of days of untangling knots and watering, petting the critters who didn't get to go along, I'm ready to bring out the work that was done in the workshops in Georgia last week and earlier.

As a demonstration of both back light and morning light, I painted this 12 x 9 oil in a 40 minute demonstration to share how the Color System works to depict these attributes in a canvas that's both flat and without luminosity. I

t's hard to compete with Nature, when Nature brings us such beauty! While on Fay's workshop farm, several of us would go out at 7 a.m. and walk the fields and woods, bringing back beautiful source material such as the image below. Those morning walks set the stage for the long hours to follow, filling our eyes with beauty and brightness we would later transfer to canvas.

Having such a gorgeous area for a workshop is one of the reasons I'm so grateful to Fay for opening her heart and farm to the "Boot Campers", many of whom actually staying on the farm for the duration. They would paint well into the night--working hard to settle in the guidelines of the Color System before their five short days were over.

This painting is in the hands of new collector Beth Haislip from South Carolina.

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