Mar 29 - La Vieja, the old Pug Painting

Horse Paintings Coming Up I'm more than happy to take requests for subjects for paintings--it allows me to focus and perhaps to paint something I've not done before.   Do you have some ideas? Other News   I've been spending available days working on two things outside of art--the big garden and the sheep pasture. That one is inside the other is not lost on me--weed control and planting! Here's an image of the fenced garden with mulch in place and the sheep doign weed patrol inside the perimeter fence. The mountain behind is wehre I hike. It's lovely green this time of year, and not much green in the garden yet, although I've planted about half of it. March 29 - A Different Old One Another one for the Canine Art Guild Online Show.  Called "La Vieja", this 14 year old pug belonged to the fellow who stayed in the guest house while he completed his masters. I now have her as the "third wheel" in the pack here, and decided that with her long life and gentle nature, she deserved a portrait. It came quickly, after I set her up on the cat perch (padded in the afternoon sunshine), and took her picture while she looked out the window.   I love old dogs. I should have more of them, because they are so grateful for what they have. She was sad for a day or two after I adopted her back, but quickly figured out her place and has been snoring mightily in happy dog dreams ever since.   This 7 x 5 oil is available for $100 from me.   Elin's Daily Painting Blog is HERE. Workshop information is HERE. Please forward this on to your friends, and thank you!    Thanks for reading, Elin On Unsubscribing... If you wish to unsubscribe from the Daily Paintings blog or this email message, please don't click on the link at the bottom. Just send me an email with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line and I'll remove you quickly and quietly.    I've been glad to be a part of your artistic journey and will welcome you back when you're ready.   For the rest of you, I have some great horse paintings coming up in stages for your learning pleasure!

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Mar 27 - Doberman Painting for Canine Art Guild Online Show

It seems to be working... I'm still tweaking as I learn more about the technology on this mailing list thingie. Bear with me!   The AAEA workshop is creating a lot of interest! You can go here for the flyer (pdf file, Adobe Reader required). March 27 - Quick One for Canine Art League Online Show During a part of the workshop when folks were working on their time-of-day paintings....  I started and finished this 12 x 9 oil of a Doberman Pinscher. This is actually a portrait of my long-gone soulmate Evoe. She was an elegant dobie, with lines of Shinya and Marienberg going right to Sun Hawk on top and bottom. Doing this backlit oil with the purples and blues complementing the oranges of her mask wa a joy. Do you see the Color System working? You veterans of the Color Boot Camps, I bet you can figure out the background!   I love painting animals who are gone--it brings them back to me and I can touch them yet again as the paint comes off my brushes. I think I have painted most every dog that has been a part of my life, and some still are here on the wall or in the rack.   I did an earlier portrait of her before the color system, and I share it with you as well in the sidebar. Same size, different color scheme. Which do YOU prefer? Email me...   Elin's Daily Painting Blog is HERE. Workshop information is HERE. Please forward this on to your friends, and thank you!  I had a wonderful dinner this evening, with much of the vegetables coming from the garden: three lettuces (romaine, red oak and , beets, Swiss chard, carrots (cooked in mango sauce!) and avocados. That, plus the cod made for a fine meal.  And there's one ewe that is SO ready to pop. Huge as a house, I watched her graze today with one of the lambs kicking her side. What a wonderful spring!   Thanks for reading, Elin ABC Company, 123 Any Street, Any Town, www.abccompany.com Insert... Font family Font size

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Mar 25 - Another One Gets Worked Over

Workshop!! The American Academy of Equine Art is collaborating with me at my studio to teach a five-day workshop on horses in landscape (using the Color System). It's scheduled for April 11-15 and the weather will be just perfect for it! Here in Riverside, we have Raindance for a model (which she loves!). I'm scheduling drawing sessions with my neighbor's Arabs, taking those images or the student's own reference photographs and working them up with the Color System to create wonderful equine paintings.   A portion of your workshop fee is a donation to the tax deductible AAEA, too! Ask about the workshop!! Original "Problem Child" 12 x 16 Oil on Panel     Available for $220 email Elin Yesterday's painting is sold. March 25 - Another Re-do of an Oldie Changing the time of day....  When I picked up this "oldie-but-not-quite-Goodie" off the shelf, I knew I was going to make some dramatic color changes to teach my workshop students about time of day.   The original painting was done on location at the Sants Rosa Preserve in Murrieta, California. It was done with that limited colors I mentioned yesterday, and I'll share them with you: Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Light, Pthalo Green and Burnt Umber. A great palette for a lot of plein air painters, even though limited. I've come to dislike the limited options it brings, and have expanded it to the twelve of the Color System which suits me.   This painting is now full of morning light, and yet appears more yellow than I would like--the photograph doesn't do it justice.   Elin's Daily Painting Blog is HERE. Workshop information is HERE. Please forward this on to your friends, and thank you!  And on Other News.... No pictures of the big garden--it's raining again and so I hiked around the valley with Vince and the sheep instead. I love being outdoors even in the rain, so I guess I don't have any sense, eh? My Mom used to say I didn't have either the "sense God gave a goat" (Vince would disagree) or "not enough sense to come in out of the rain". I just smile.....   Thanks for reading, Elin

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Mar 24 - Redoing an old one and new format

NEWS!!! How do you like the new format? I had to go to an upgrade of what I'm sharing by not using the blog for sharing. They just did one too many things to make it tough to communicate, so here we are with a new provider and better pleasure in keeping open the communication. How do you like it? Original "Problem Child" 12 x 16 Oil on Panel Available for $220 SOLD March 24 - Redoing an Old One Sometimes we have to fix paintings....  For the recently completed workshop, I demonstrated evening light on an old 12 x 16 oil I'd done years ago (2002) as part of a class I taught in plein air painting for the community college. I remember the objective for the day--"atmospheric perspective". For these college students, who had few yards of canvas under their brushes, I kept the colors simple. They were working with the basic palette of five colors plus white.The site was chosen because of the stairstepping mountain ranges getting lighter and softer as they receded to the left. Now that I'm using 12 colors in the Color System, the results are DRAMATIC in the changes of color. And I absolutely loved going over the old painting with the new Color System knowledge. Picking the colors to liven up the canvas was easy as I kept my head in either the warm or cool boxes to mix the colors. I promised the students I'd do more of this, and I'll share them with you in the days to come. Elin's Daily Painting Blog is HERE. Workshop information is HERE. Please forward this on to your friends, and thank you!  And on Other News.... I'm having tons of fun planning and planting the new 48 x 36' garden plot (pictures coming). I've upped the ante on tomato plants, having a whopping ten heirloom varieties from the three I had last year. The Swiss chard is in, as are the summer squashes. I'm starting the winter squash in the raised beds for transplanting later this afternoon. Still eating the lettuces and carrots and beets from the winter planting cycle. Carrots are SO good! Thanks for reading, Elin ABC Company, 123 Any Street, Any Town, www.abccompany.com Insert... Font family Font size

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Mar 16 - Cats coming out to Play!

Finished and here for your pleasure, the 24 x 30 inch oil of "Bats, the Studio Cat", replacing the damaged "A Pitcher for Bats" which now is permanently retired.

In finishing this one, I was more mindful of color choices to keep the wrarmth of the painting and the freshness of the peonies and other flowers. I had no model to go on because Bats decided to ignore the studio today and stay upstairs in the sunshine! And the lemons and apple were out of my head (I aaaam, you know!) and painted from having painted a bazillion of them in earlier times.

I'll also attach the damaged painting again, so you can compare and contrast the differences.  I'd be pleased to answer any questions about this one, just click on over to my blog and post a comment.  And forward this on to your friends!

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

Mar 15 - Covering the Canvas, Cat Still Life Painting

Now the painting ia about 80 percent covered with theinherent colors of the major shapes, and I'm having a ball with the wet pigment--pushing the colors with additions of the warm light of morning on this painting. Note the shadows are going toward grayed red-violet, which is enhanced by the clear yellow-orange under painting. This is so much more vibrant than that "old" painting.

So can we improve on our old work? Yes, because now we are "schmartah, wizah, and mo'beddah" with our life experiences and "miles of canvas" which helps us make good choices (heck, after making all those bad choices on learning painting we have to learn SOMETHING, right?).

So after this one is finished, I'm going to share with you some "repaints" of old work--pre Color System, and one even from 1983 (eeek, am I THAT old???)


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

Mar 14 - Better Color Choices with the Color System

 The last day of the Color Boot Camp just ended, and I bid farewell to the folks who just spent three days in a very personal interaction with the Color System.

While here, I painted for them this cat painting redux, and fixed two problem paintings of mine, and also painted two dog portraits for the Canine Art Guild's "Mug Shots" online show. So my brushes really took a beating this weekend!

I want to show you how the Color System works in repainting this cat image. Here is a section of the new painting background and the old painting, new on top. Look at the difference between the upper color and the duller, lower color from the old painting. The Color System creates the harmony because using it gives you control over good color every time. The trio of workhorse colors (Ult. Blue. Aliz. Crimson and Yellow Ochre) work very well to depict the background here.

In the second color chip image, look at the "new" lemons and the old one. How wrong that green is on it! Even unfinished, the lemon in the newer painting resonate with the background cloth and shadow. 

Now I am relaxing on this Monday evening with a glass of wine, the wondrous view, and going for a much-needed walkabout to see what's what with the sheep and other outside critters this evening. More tomorrow!

Please write a comment on my blog on this post so I can know if these musings are useful for you. Sometimes I send them out into the ether and wonder if anyone even is listening! Then I get a nice email from someone far away who seems just next door saying how relevant what I write has become for them.  And I puff up with a feeling of being useful again!

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

Mar 13 - Studio Cat Floral Continues, Gardens and Workshop

Using the magic of the trio of workhorse colors (Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin and Yellow Ochre + white), I'm putting in the background cools to set off the many warms that are coming along later.  This is fun to do, because there is nothing hard about filling in a flat area. However, please note (you graduates of the Color System!) that I'm using the sixth plan of values in making gradation across this supposedly flat expanse of background.

"When in doubt, gradate!!!" Makes large color areas more interesing when we vary the values across those areas. A lesson to remember, so that the end results of our hard work isn't boring areas for the viewer to land.

On other news, I'm in the second day of teaching the Color Boot Camp, and having a blast. The students are enthusiastic, they're GETTING the Color System and producing some wonderful pieces. Too hard on themselves, they sometimes find it difficult to like what they produce. I see Color System magic in places on their paintings, yet sometimes they want everything to be perfect. Perfection happens over time, and is always elusive! Be good to yourself and find small greatness in major efforts. That's all it takes sometimes to move forward.

And the gardens here at Two Trees Studio are producing gangbusters. Here is an image of the lettuces, kale, carrots and flowering bouganvilla out in the back. That's the gate that takes you out into the oh-so-green Preserve lands behind the studio. Yummy salad tonight. I have one of the wire covers propped up on that back box (filled with Swiss chard) because every once in a while, the rabbits come to dine. These are four-foot square boxes, slightly raised, built out of two 2x6 boards for one-foot deep boxes filled with compost. No fertilizing needed and it is a modified square-foot garden concept. No rows. Just groups.



The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE

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

Mar 12 - Damage and Replacement

You might remember this painting from my web site, "A Pitcher for Bats", featured on one of Hasbro's jigsaw puzzles some time ago. Well, as sometimes happens, paintings get damaged. This one fell over and had a nice puncture put in the canvas, which if you look over Bats' right ear, you'll see. I can repair it, but see no reason to do so. It's time has passed, and with all the new thinking I'm having, creating a BETTER painting seems like the way to go.

So I started another new canvas, and will be showing the progress of this one in the next few days as I am teaching my workshop. These students are very fortunate in that it is a small workshop, and so they get the full benefit of individualized instruction. We still have the great lunches and snacks, and eat out on the front patio.

Here's the first stages on this 24 x 30 inch canvas, toned in Australian Red Gold, thinned down. Unlike the upper painting, I'm using the Color System to create another painting. I'm making some changes in the design as well, most easily visible by the round table instead of the rectangle of the original painting. I'm dropping the magazine under Bats as well.

The original painting is 40 x 36 inches, and was painted well before I ever collided with the Color System. I can see how I have grown as an artist as this one unfolds. I hope you'll enjoy it, too!

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

Mar 10 - On Location Again and a Nice Ride

With the PAAR group, I went to the Rancho Jurupa Park on the Santa Ana River for a day of painting. I did two, one in the morning which is on display at the show, and this one late in the afternoon when the sun finally started to dip below the distant hills.  The photograph of this little 5 x 7 oil just doesn't do it justice, as the colors are far more yummy than what you see here. Funny how that happens! 

I love painting on location, and was planning on doing more of it today, but the yardwork got in the way. I've been outside pulling weeds on a steep slope and dumping the results in the sheep feeder. They love them!

Yesterday I took Raindance out to ride in the oh-so-green mountains around the place, and took this photograph from the top of the first ridge away from the studio. Looking out over the open space to the southwest, it is impossible to imagine that my studio is located in "crowded" Southern California. But if all one sees is the media from cable TV and downtown Los Angeles, then one would never know that gorgeous places are here. That's the University of California Riverside in the distance.

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

Mar 9 - Plein Air with the Riverside Artists PAAR

On location this time, I went as part of the Plein Air Painters of Riverside (PAAR) on their week-long paint out last week. This is the fifth year, and I've been in it several times. The bridge in this 12 x 9 oil is the Union Pacific Viaduct at the Anza Narrows park on the Santa Ana River, built in 1904.

Last year I stayed up in the park where most of the artists were today. This year I wanted a more dramatic view, so Willow and I hiked down into the riverbed and got near enough to the architecture to get the dramatic upward span of one of the arches. Below is a photograph of my setup spot with the almost finished painting on the Easyl. I was fascinated by the graffiti on the uprights of the bridge as a contrasting color to the predominantly blue/yellow ochre of the day.

Done rather quickly (as most of my plein air work is), I now feel as though the sky needs more punch to honor the sweeping shape of the arch. Yet as you can see from the photo below, the sky that day was about as I painted it. Ah, back to the studio for some creative license! This painting never saw the light of sharing at the PAAR event, as I quickly packed up and headed home after enjoying a walk up and down the riverbed with Willow. And I'd signed it, so it stayed in the studio--the plein air competition pieces remain unsigned.

The amazing force of the water through the channel created many dynamic shapes and curves in the river's banks, and Willow and I enjoyed the cool day on the river. I took Willow with me, since I knew I'd be down in the very remote riverbed. Nothing was there on this day, but I know there are feral dogs, pigs and some destitute humans eking out a living in this watershed. She was great company.


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

Mar 8 - Calicobermans Finished

Finished and now on display in Kansas City at the Art Show at the Dog Show! 24 x 24 box canvas, "Calicobermans" won third place in the Other Media category.

As artists we have a supreme obligation to interpret our world around us, and we do so by taking our realities and putting them through our sensitivities and training to emerge in our art forms--whatever those take. As I have said often, it isn't about the end product (nice to have something that works, though!), it is about the PROCESS of creating that is of value for me. I hope it is for you, too.

Art is part of my life--a big part--and sometimes, like a wave, life comes and takes me under for a while. However, I've always been like a cork, rising to the top even in the greatest deluge. I credit optimism, a greater world view, and close friends for my buoyancy. Thanks to you! And Good Things continue to happen--I've been asked to judge the Del Mar Fair's Plein Air event this coming June. I love to do that--going to the fair is always fun, and it's a full day of watching my peers paint, enjoying the funnel cakes and even going on a ride or two!

Here's the new mom ewe with her two lambs--the white one is a girl, the brown and white one is the boy. Although smaller, he's up and nursing well now. And yes, all my sheep wear bells--the beauty of the sound lifts my soul as they graze. Mrs. Redhen watches with interest.

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

Mar 7 - Calico Dobermans and a LOT of Things!

"Calicobermans" won an award at the Art Show at the Dog Show where it is currently on exhibit, so I'm pleased that the final image came out so well. At this stage, I'm starting to paint the dogs with acrylics as I continue to add fabric to the background. Check out the lower left corner from the last posting. See how I painted over the calico fabric to get the same color as on the right corner? That's also how I develop these unique pieces. They do not rely on the fabric alone!

Where does the time go? Guess I've been under the radar for about a month, and so I'm glad to be back! Lots of paintings to share with you, and I'll pile them up in the blog and have them come out automatically so there won't be another gap like this one. I apologize for the space between postings. However, sometimes artists thrive on "down time" to process and work behind the scenes. I have paintings to share from the Plein Air Artists of Riverside's week long competition and a portrait of a pug dog that has come to live with me. 

And THIS WEEKEND is the Color Boot Camp Workshop here!  I do have a few spaces left for last-minute deciders to improve your color sense!

On other news, the brown and black ewe in the photo to the right gave birth a few days ago and presented me with twins--unusual for a first freshener. She's a Barbado/Dorper cross, and a good mother. The photo is one I took a few days ago when I was out with the flock. That's Willow's shadow at my feet--Sparky was digging and out of the picture. I love my life!

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

Feb 15 - Laying in the Fabric Swatches on "Calicobermans"

It's a lot like doing a jig-saw puzzle. Cutting the pieces to fit, picking the right value and interesting patterns to make the shapes come alive.  I had such fun picking what will eventually be the distant background, too.

Do you see where I'm resolving the placement of the dog paws down front and center? That's the way I work, without confining decisions if I'm not sure. I like working with future puzzles to solve as the art evolves.  Of course, sometimes the puzzles win, and there's a problem to be solved later down the road. If the puzzle wins on those paws, it'll be too late, as the piece has already been accepted to the Art Show at the Dog Show and needs to be shipped this week.  So I'm boxing and filling out forms--part of the duties of an exhibiting artist.

On other news, I thought you'd enjoy seeing the picture I took last Saturday morning from the TOP of the mountain behind my studio (marked with the yellow circle). Making a new trail to the top of the mountain is part of the joy of hiking--and this one will be a good one for horses and people, connecting up to an established trail accessible from the other side of the mountain. I love making trails, and the weather was gorgeous. Today a rain front has moved in, taking the temps down to 60 and there's a misty rain falling as I look out my studio window. However, hiking in the rain is good, too!

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

Feb 13 - The Beginning of "Calicobermans"

 On a 24 x 24 inch box canvas (no frame needed, and very contemporary), I sketched in these two dobermans in preparation for what I call a "Fabricritter" painting.  More of a collage, yet still a painting, these are so much fun to do!  You saw the carousel horse be created late last year with the fabric swatches, and this one is no different.

The painting, in final form, was accepted to the Art Show at the Dog Show in Kansas, and I'll need to ship it to arrive by the 25th. It was accepted into the "mixed media, other" category.

As it develops, it takes on a life of its own.  Here's the first fabric scraps added to the black and rust dobie.  I have boxes of fabric in the studio and sorting through the calicos is such fun! Adding each piece is similar to putting the fabric right on a real dog--following the anatomical contours and adjusting the patterns to give a "feel" of fur.  I love doing it!

On other notes, I had the sheep out and I went along with a book and seat and enjoyed the afternoon light as they grazed above the studio. It was one of those amazingly beautiful evenings, and I read my book with the serendipitous bells of the herd in my ears. Hard to believe this is February! That's Vince who just came by for a head scratch and is heading back to eat. The pines of Two Trees Studio are on the left near the edge.

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