Nov 22 - Visiting with Friends and New Work

A wonderful ten-day visit with Michelle Walker, from Ohio, almost eclipsed the joy of teaching the November Color Boot Camp! We painted, went gallery hopping in Laguna Beach, and had the best time laughing and just being joyful artists.

I've been rather thoughtful of late, pensive in contemplating how our lives unfold, and how we cannot live a life without changes (whether anticipated or not) that will come. It's how we deal with changes that says much of our value as humans to one another. Changes come in all forms, in our art, in our art direction and also in our thinking when we actually DO our art.

I'm changing, which is inevitable. That's not to say that the old "Art Me" is no longer there, but the one evolving and emerging now is one of more depth and richness. This is good. As our economy continues to erode, and we reach back to find some sustainable pleasure in the structure of our lives, learning more about who we are as artists is a good thing. Going out and making choices about self improvement is a good thing. Self-development brings us talents and skills that will be useful in the future we have to face. To become stagnant in one's art is so self-limiting, and leaves us dead in the water, repeating mistakes or stuck in the expectations of others.

I highly recommend finding an artist who is also a good teacher to push you out of any ruts you might be in. My week with Michelle and her insights has made me do that, and it is all joyful.

So I'm moving forward with my art, and will be sharing those paintings with you. Yes, they still have the Color System!

The image to the right is a 16 x 12 oil, started to show the students not only backlighting, but also snow, and a horse in a demonstration that will unfold over the next few days on my blog. This is the dark abstract structure that most all my paintings start with. The blue underpainting is acrylic thalo blue spritzed with alcohol and allowed to dry. Makes great visual texture!

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Nov 16 - The Workshop Over, and New Work

Does this one look familiar? Ought to. It was around a few years ago in another life and another level of color knowledge. I've included the earlier version below and that'll allow you to see how making color changes as one's color knowledge improves can be freeing, pleasurable and just pure FUN!

During the workshop (Color Boot Camp!) last weekend, I used this 12 x 9 oil as a lesson in how to achieve color balance when faced with a problem painting. I brought this one into 2010 with better choices of hue in about 1/3 of the canvas. Can you tell where? Yes, the panniers got a makeover, but so did the sky and the shadows. It was a good lesson for the Boot Campers to see.

What's the value plan?
What time of day is it?
Is there a good value structure holding the painting together?
These three questions are good ones to have when you're either fixing a painting or beginning one.

The Mule is Sold, and will be going to it's new home next week.

Today my guest Michelle Walker and I will be plein air painting near Two Trees, and who knows how my brushes will behave? I know her company is joyful as she is really GOOD with color (heh heh....)

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
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My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
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Nov 1 - Not Finished...

The painting has the touches that I felt needed to be present for the demonstration audience, and I brought it back to the studio looking like this. Even though the major details are now in place, I'm going to adjust and make some major shifts in it when I can calmly look at it in the quietude of the studio.

I enjoy doing demonstrations, as I tend to talk-talk-talk, sharing information as the brushes are moving (those who have the newest DVD will attest!). But the painting at this stage lacks the nifty details that makes an acrylic under my hands so much fun to visually enjoy.

We do need to step away from our work to get a better feel for it. Women especially tend to noodle paintings beyond saving because we are wired to believe that "if we just DO something, it will be better". And that noodling generally results in disaster. I know the men reading this are nodding their heads, having told their wives, wishing they could say "Just leave it (AKA me) alone," as we women try to fix things. So I've trained myself to walk away from my art, knowing that when I return to the work, it will be with a fresh mind, able to see more clearly what needs to be done. So it is with this one.

Since I'm still in Chicago, I've been unable to noodle the painting, even if I wanted to, so this is accepting what is, and that's always a good thing.

Flying back to California on this first of November, el Dia de los Muertos. May you have recovered from the spooky goblins and skeletal hauntings of Halloween to remember one's ancestors today!

I will be giving a three-day, spaced out over several weeks workshop after the New Year for the folks in the Temecula area.

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

Oct 31 - Happy Halloween and the demo painting

I've taken another photograph of the painting's progress, now thirty minutes into the demonstration last week. Here I've finally opened the Warm Box and added some of the lights to the canvas. However, those orange areas in the foreground are located in the shade, so they're made with yellow ochre and alizarin, two Cool Box hues!

At this stage, I'm still fooling around with the large shapes, and accidentally many of the interesting edges occur just because I'm not "trying" to make edges. I've found that a lack of concern for edges until later in the painting process. Most of the "accidental" edges just remain as visual eye candy.

Happy Halloween to y'all. I won't be seeing any trick or treating today as the hotel here isn't the place. But the Navy housing around me will be doing it, and I'll be looking out for some little costumes.

Here's another very creative image taken by my nephew (New Jersey contingent--where I spent last Christmas). He's quite the creative photographer, lining up my sister and his daughter Kristina at that chrome sculpture in Millennium Park. My niece the graduate is texting in the background. (She hadn't seen her phone while in boot camp!)

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

Oct 30 - Chicago in Balmy Fall Weather

This is the painting, 20 minutes in, because I FORGOT to photograph it after the first ten minutes! Arrrgh!

What I've done here is opened the Cool Box only to paint (first) the large dark structures of the trees and deep gray greens. I left the warms exposed where I plan to put the focal point and the sunlit patches of light coming through the pines. I'm using a one-inch filbert as I paint these large shapes. The rocks (purplish shapes) are done with the sky trio, plus white and a bit of burnt umber to "kill back" the purity. The sky patches coming through the trees do not have that umber in the mix, because one would "never" use earths in the sky!! (Oh, I hear the voices of the Color Boot Camp graduates saying that!)

When I return from Chicago, I'll be getting ready for the Color Boot Camp coming up November 11-14. It's full, but there are plans afoot for me to teach three weekend days spread out over the end of January and February for the folks in Temecula next year. They might have a couple slots, but there were ten already to sign up after my doing this demonstration.

Chicago is enjoying some really "balmy" 50+ degree weather, and Sparky and I were in Millenium Park at that huge chrome sculpture. That's my family in the background and my sister taking the photo. Silly fun!

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
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My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
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Oct 29 - In Chicago and the Demonstration

I did the demonstration painting before leaving for Chicago last week, and here's the first pass... Just the covering of the canvas with (in this case) sap green and burnt sienna, which are both warms. The painting that will result is of one of the many picnic tables in Hawley Lake's campground. Something about the location coupled with the table as a gathering place is motivating me to do a series of paintings conveying the beauty and the gathering of like-minded souls. We could all gather at a picnic table in a beautiful place and celebrate the joy of being together and the location!

This is a 16 x 20, and I'm doing it in acrylics. What you see, is the marks in the paint done with a silicone-tipped "brush" mark maker. The scribbles and jots are plans for the location of shapes coming later.

I carried it in this stage to the art guild in Temecula.

On other news, I'm typing this from Chicago North--having just seen my niece graduate as a Seaman Recruit at the Naval Training Station here. She was outstanding in her training, earning the right to carry the sword for the flag detail (all state flags) as part of the honor guard. Here's a rather grainy picture I took during the ceremony. I'm so proud of her intelligence, her focus, and her choice of following in her grandfather's choice of a Naval career.

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

Oct 18 - The Blank Surface Awaits

It begins. The 30 x 40 canvas on the easel, white as snow, awaiting the brushes. And the source material that is the inspiration for that next painting stuck to the middle of it. Tiny picture, big canvas.

All artists face this moment. The idea in the crucible of the mind, sparkling and optimistically on the verge of emergence. The first brush mark will break the restraint and the painting journey will commence. Will it be smooth sailing? Or will the trip be plagued with potholes and mechanical problems? That's the mystique of the process, and here's the whole answer to that... It isn't what you face when you create, it is how you react to it that matters.

I've had some real stinkers come off the easel in my career. "Potholes" if you will, that ought not to have seen the light of day. (You can find some of them on the dailypaintings web site.) Most are gone now, fuel for the bonfire of paintings last summer. That I created such turkeys isn't what matters. What matters is that I didn't think of them as the "end-all be-all" of my work, nor the culmination of my painting efforts. No. I just acknowledged that at that moment in time I was not at my best game. So I move on to make better paintings.

So as we all look at that white surface before the frenzy of brushwork begins, remember that no matter the end result, the painting will only be a stepping stone, not a stopping place, on your career.

Tomorrow I go to another demonstration, this time in Temecula at 7 pm, at 41789 Nichole Lane. Looks like it is in the Creekside Center near the mall. Not sure if I'm painting in oils or acrylics, but whatever I do, I'll blog it for you in ten minute increments in the days ahead.

And if it turns out to be a candidate for the next bonfire, know that we all tell ourselves, "I'll never make that mistake again!"

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE.
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My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
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Oct 16 - Demo forty minutes in

Ah, finishing up and adding the last details... that was what took up the last ten-minute section of the demonstration. Adding the huan element of that picnic table is what pulls the viewer into the image. And all of that is planned from the get-go, and with the careful orchestration of the brushwork and keeping the values down, now you see the angles of the table and know the scale of the place. The viewer (you) now "fit" into the scene.

Here's an interesting part of this... taking the image into Photoshop, and doing a levels view on it, I see this graph showing the amount of the values in the painting. Note the nice bell curve shape of the values. HUGE amount of mid tones, and small darks and lower values, and also small lights. Note that the majority of the painting's values are humped to the LEFT of mid point, showing that this painting is darker in values than a more balanced image. Using the "Levels" can teach you about your work in ways that are not accessible through just looking or asking your significant other or spousal unit, "Honey, do you like this?"

I hope to begin a larger, special painting tomorrow, and will share the development of that one with you as well.

This painting, entitled "Sanctuary" will get some more tweaking before I call it finished, but I did sign it.

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
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My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

October 15 - Thirty Minutes into it, and changes!

Oh, look! The trees are back!

In ten more minutes with the fastest (one inch filbert) brush in the west, I've gone BACK into my dark pigments and put in those trees, their major needles (Ponderosa pines), and make the green areas of the lower right more interesting. What I'm doing at this point is "shaping" those larger marks into three-dimensional belief builders. They look like rocks now.

The filbert brush is an amazing tool--giving the artist the broad strokes that start and finish thinly as one puts down and picks up the brush. That brush also made all of the branches--thick to thin, out to the ending tips. All with a one-inch filbert.

I've mentioned before that making water isn't tough--first the verticals, and then the horizontals on top. I'll add to that a general guideline--make more verticals (at least 2/3 more) than horizontals. I've held to that pretty much by this point with the lake. I like how the whole scene feels wet, and I can testify that this is because of the Cool Box colors.

On other news, tonight 20 people are coming over to my theater to watch a special movie screening of a private debate held last year. I'm chasing dust bunnies and trying to make the yard resemble something other than a dog kennel. Dog puppy toys everywhere, sigh...

Did any of you see the National Geographic "Worst Fix" show last night with the installation of Ron Wood's project in Salt Lake City? After the structure is in place, the glass will be installed over the next few months. Ought to be spectacular when finished!

The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
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My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
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Oct 14 - Another Ten Minutes, and the Salt Lake City Sky Bridge

Ten more minutes in and the mid-tones are set in place. The colors used for these mid-tones are completely out of the Cool Box, and all I've done is add white to them. I didn't even clean my palette, but mixed down into the colors already there with the white.

Now the lake's furthest edge cuts through my original trees, but I need that complete line, as it is important to have it go fully across, since we all know water "seeks its own level". During the NEXT ten minutes, I'll paint those tress back in.

So, I've laid in thin darks (structure, first ten minutes), mid-tones in large shapes (second ten minutes), and... can you guess what will come next? Tomorrow will be revealing...

On another note, it is SO exciting to know that National Geographic has picked up on the massive glass project of Ron Wood (the last project of Ron's partnership company before Ron went solo). You can see the framework for the Salt Lake City's glass "Sky Bridge" going up as their "World's Toughest Fixes" and it is happening TONIGHT (Thursday, 8 pm) on television. Wish I had cable! Here's the LINK. I had mentioned that Ron did large projects? All I can say is... WOW.

We're still working on the collaboration of the fused glass panels. Just love the creative energy!

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

Oct 13 - Demonstration Painting in Stages, First Pass, 10 minutes

The Corona Art Association welcomed me as their demonstrating artist last night, and I put the 16 x 20 acrylic panel (from yesterday's blog) up on my easel and began my talk.

I asked a member familiar with an iTouch to set my timer for ten minutes, and with much laughter, I started painting. At the end of the ten minutes, here was the result. The canvas is covered for the most part with dark tones and mixes of Cool Box Ultramarine blue, Burnt Umber and Thalo green. No white. All I did was paint over the underpainting using various strengths of this trio of colors using a one-inch filbert Ruby Satin, by Silver Brush.

In my talk to the group, I stressed the importance of getting that abstract structure with dark values before ANY of the details show up. As you can see, the identity of the painting is clear even at this murky point. Howard Pyle, the "father of American Illustration" used to teach his students that they had 30 minutes to get a value structure in place that would hold up to the viewer 90 feet away--"Thirty minutes, thirty yards!". He was a great teacher, and still influences artists today. Having strength of design before the objects that create that design overwhelm the viewer is a good practice. Objects by themselves do not create good paintings. Design is EVERYTHING to making good art!

If I make this painting tiny, as though it is away from you 90 feet, you can see in only ten minutes I've been able to create a value design that holds up with clarity. Whew.... OK, let's reset the timer for another ten minutes, and look at what happens to this painting... tomorrow!

The Riverside workshop in November is full. Sorry if you didn't make it into this last one for 2010. There are several offerings for next year, though, and I'll be announcing those in the weeks to come. Gift yourself the gift of knowledge!

The newest DVD on the Color System, Twilight and Misty Days, is HERE.
You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Oct 12 - Acrylic Art Demonstration Painting in Stages

I'm headed out this evening to do a demonstration painting in acrylics for the Corona Art Association, and I wanted you to see this one develop in stages. Here's the first cover, done in the studio so I can talk and not think about composition as I start. (Yes, I'm taking the timer along with me! Every ten minutes I'll take another image and post a blog on that stage of the painting.)

The under painting on this 16 x 20 is done with a mix of cad orange and sap green, with a touch of thalo blue thrown in. I know it is going to be a Cool Box painting, so I put in a warm under painting, in case some of that shows through. If you look earlier in my blog (Sept 21-26), you'll see another painting in stages which is similarly done. This one, however, is in a different atmosphere, and won't have much of the mist on it. I used one of those rubber-tipped "brushes" to make the marks of the drawing so I know the basic location of the coming shapes. I also spritzed it with alcohol mist when the paint was wet enough to react to it. Makes an interesting visual texture, even though most of it will be lost in the coming layers.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it will develop, although I can almost "feel" it finished in my mind. The canvas is now packed in the Honda Fit along with my art supplies and DVDs for the evening demo.

The source image for this demonstration tonight is below, and is from my recent trip to the White Mountains. I hope you'll enjoy how it develops and my writing about why I make the changes I do. Let's enjoy our time together as this one develops over the next several days!

On another front... the painting that I revised on October 7th SOLD at the opening, along with eight other artists' works. So even though some of you were divided in your comments about its changes, it is now in someone's collection, so no revisions are possible! ( The 7x5 picnic bench is still there... sort of glad it hasn't sold.)

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

Oct 11 - Memories of Ski Areas, Oil 8 x 10

This was the last painting of the trip--done on Thursday from my camper. It was done from inside the camper, because I was sited on the side of the road in the middle of a high, wide mesa, and the winds were buffeting so strongly that my camper roof was rippling and occasional thunder came from above!

Done in oils, I enjoyed coming back into the sumputous feel of this media after the details inherent in acrylic layering. This is Sunrise Ski Area, and I painted the runs with a dusting of imaginary snow. As is the wish of everyone who enjoys downhill winter sports, that first snowfall heralds the coming of winter playdays!

The ominous snow-filled clouds were painted with the ultra blue, alizarin, yellow ochre and white combination that is so useful for all skies. Never pure, these three make marvelous, clean sky grays with infinite variations!

Here's yet another image from the campground, showing the many ways this part of the White Mountains presents itself. This one may end up in a painting--perhaps as a backdrop to a living creature--or another picnic table! In any case, the beauty and peacefulness of Hawley Lake cannot be minimized. I'm glad I brought back so many photographic memories.

You can buy my latest DVD "Twilight and Misty Light" HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Oct 10 - The Best One

Here's the painting--a tiny 7 x 5 acrylic, and I just love it. The photograph doesn't show the subtle light grays in the mid ground, but it does show the variations on the lichen-covered rocks and vegetation in the foreground. Why do I love it? Memory reinforcement. This is a recreation of the memory I shared with you yesterday, and it is what makes artists who we are. We live, feel, and then it comes out of our brushes to visual results.

I don't want to sell this one, and almost pulled it from the four that are in Pinetop. But I realize that in making art, the sharing of the paintings is part of the connection I have to humanity. So these ones that are so meaningful to me must go on to others.

The underpainting didn't speak of what was coming, did it? The vision was in my head of what it would be... that's the hopeful optimism of an artist! And doing it is the practice that all artists must pursue to be able to effectively convey his or her vision.

The good news is that the workshop in November is now full, but I am taking a couple for wait listing. I won't have another workshop until March of next year, so this is a great time to get a snoot full of Color System! All have their supplies lists and I'm looking forward to teaching face-to-face (versus online courses at the college).

I do have a demonstration coming up on October 12 at Corona's Art Association. This will be at the Corona Heritage Park and Museum, at 510 Foothill Parkway in Corona. I'll have my new DVD there and will be painting a misty light painting in acrylics. I know the subject matter will be from my recent trip! Hope to see you there, or at the Temecula demo the following week on the 19th.

Did you notice that today is "10-10-10"? As dates go, this doesn't happen all that often. We get it for the first twelve years of a new decade. Then it is gone again, for 100 years. Wouldn't it be nifty to have been born on one of these unique dates?

Congratulations to new collector Shannon Hennigan of Penn Valley, California for her purchase of "In the Park", a 6x6 oil.

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

Oct 9 - Underpainting of a 7x5 Acrylic

The result of this underpainting is perhaps one of the best paintings I've made of Hawley Lake, and I really, REALLY didn't want to leave it at the gallery to be sold. Sometimes paintings do that to us. We experience something that moves us, and we wait until we are ready and able to put that feeling on a canvas. So it is with this tiny 7x5 panel.

The underpainting is all done in the Cool Box, as this is an overcast day (yippee! Those of you with DVD #4 will know all about that!). I've painted in the distant mountains and the lake and sky using the "Big Three"--Ultra. blue, alizarin and yellow ochre with white.

It will continue, with Ponderosa pines overlaid on this canvas and the focal point of a picnic table put in later (tomorrow). When it is overcast and even rainy at a place like this, I remember so well being forced to leave a Girl Scout camp when I was small because of the change of weather. I loved that rain at the edge of that Virginia lake, and wanted to stay for the overnight, but moms prevailed, and I was deprived of the magic of the misty day and the rain on the cabin roof. I have been forever changed by being pulled away from that event. I love rain and mist, and wonder what possessed me to live in a desert today?

I have been fascinated by the empty campground and the picnic tables, and took this image while walking with the dogs, and wanted to share it with you. This is such a manifestation of the solitude here. And the wind brought down a layer of pine needles to hide even the footprints of the summer campers. I tread softly...

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

Oct 8 - The Next Painting, Paint The Aspens

Last time I was at Hawley Lake two years ago, I saw this single aspen much smaller in the midst of the Ponderosa pine forest that lines the lake. This year, the beauty was waiting for me dressed in her fine autumn colors, and I could do no less but bring out a 16 x 8 inch canvas to finally paint her.

The morning light was streaming through from the lake, creating cast shadows and tracery of light that is the structure for this moment in time. I love working in acrylics like this (and yesterday's, too) because of the quick drying time and the ability to layer. I painted in the blue glimpses of the lake in the background after putting in the dark shape of the trees--picking out the lake blue with my brush!

This one is framed and will be left at the gallery for the show, which opens on Friday night. I'll be driving back down the mountain by then. There are still two more paintings to share with you yet, even though when you get them, they'll be hanging in the gallery as well, and I'll be back home in Riverside.

At noon today I took this image of my camper next to the lake and meadow that have been my back yard for this week. The lake water is crystal clear--and that bobber you see on the lower left enticed me to go wading to retrieve it. Silly me! The water was COLD at 8,200 feet!

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

Oct 7 - Revisions when we get smarter

On Tuesday evening, I listened to the critique given by the judge for Paint the Aspens as about eight of us put our work up for the "dice and slice". For me it was wonderful to be reminded yet again how important design is to making good paintings, and I vowed to go back and revise the painting that I shared with you yesterday. Here's the revision, and the areas that needed work are fixed. It still isn't a dynamic work, but it was a good "warm up" for the painting days ahead. Can you see the differences between it and yesterday's? They are major! (Besides taking out the repeating three little pines.)

I've been staying at Hawley Lake for the past couple of days (scheduling yesterday's posting to come to you even though I'm not there to send it). Paintings coming off the brushes have pleased me immensely... and the joy of staying in an almost-deserted campground are not only reflected in the number of paintings, but also in the joy that Sparky and Willow exude when let loose to run off energy!

Somewhere on an earlier walk, Willow lost her chain collar...so now she runs by Hawley Lake with the old nylon one. If you enlarge this view, you'll see Sparky's legs are flat out as he tries to keep up with graceful Willow. What joy!!

Only one more night in this paradise, then I leave the White Mountains to return to the desert and another state below. My heart will stay here for a while, though...More paintings tomorrow!

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

Oct 6 - The first painting from Paint the Aspens

After the rain of yesterday, I headed out to Sunrise Ski Area and set up my gear along side SR117. Interestingly enough, this is an area where wildlife management has reintroduced wolves into the region. I didn't see any while I painted, but the dogs were v-eeer--rr-y interested in the smells alongside the road! (Yes, they were on leashes.)

What fell off my brushes was this view back the way I'd come, done in acrylics on an oddball size of 12 x 10 inches. I was trying to get a depth from foreground to midground by using the group of aspens on the left to bring the composition forward. I used solid gel mixed into the acrylics to get additional texture in the leaves and grasses, and it is very effective!

The color on this isn't accurate, as there is no purple in the sky, and the intensity of the aspens isn't showing. I'll use my other camera tomorrow and see if I can get a better image.

Camping at Hawley Lake last night was TOTALLY solo. The closest campers packed up and left after the rain, so there were no other campers, and I had the entire place to myself. The elk came out of rain-drenched hiding and their calls carried across the lake and into my soul as I sat by the fire and cooked bratwurst and potatoes in the flames. What a life!!

Talk about gorgeous light across the lake this morning...everywhere I look is a future painting. So peaceful.

When I get back, I have two art group demonstrations, almost back-to-back. One for Temecula and one for Corona. And even though I'm up here at 8,200 feet, I'm still sending out DVDs when I get into town and get the orders. Your packages will say "Sent from Paint the Aspens", if I mail it from here.

You can order my latest DVD "Twilight/Misty Light" HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Oct 5 - Paint the Aspens!

Morning skies at Tonopah, Arizona, where I spent the night before coming up here to Pinetop for Paint the Aspens. Just look at those clouds and the clarity in distance. And of course, palm trees in the desert. Tonopah is home to El Dorado Hot Springs, and I try to adjust my traveling to make sure I stay over in this primitive camping spot. The spring water is wonderful!

This is my fourth year at Paint the Aspens--I love the high country before the snow flies and after most of the tourists are gone.

Here's my camp site this morning--it POURED last night--rain and hail on the camper woke me up at 3:00, and there were two startled dogs giving me the "Mom, what's up with THIS!!?!" look. I have Sparky and Willow with me. Niko is staying in Riverside.

Hawley Lake is in the background in this photo, and the smaller "lakes" are puddles from the downpour. I had a nice wood fire last night and cooked up some steaks and roasted ears of corn. Yum...

Rain is forecast--but up here, the rains come and are gone in half an hour, and the sun comes out in between. Lots of rainbows. I painted using acrylics out by Sunrise Ski Area today, and will post that painting tomorrow. I'm in the Pinetop Public Library sending this--are you enjoying the journey?

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

Sep 30 - Goat Details and The Cutest Kitty Ever...

Finished and I'm much pleased with it now... still has the freshness of the original, earlier work (done quite close to when I was assimilating the Color System) yet it is gentler, as a kid goat ought to be.... (Until they hop straight up in the air, give a twisty bend and tear off in a new direction!!

I miss my goat babies, but next spring will bring a new crop of.... LAMBS here at Two Trees. The ewes are looking contented, and the ram is looking tired. So the three ladies hopefully will present me with more painting opportunities next Feb-March.

I saw a video that just made me laugh out loud, and although I don't usually post these things, perhaps we can all use a bit of an uplift in our day. I wonder if this kitty stayed this fresh and interactive--we can hope our art will be just as bright and joyful. Keep those brushes moving!!!



On OTHER news, I'm packing the camper for my fourth trip to the White Mountains of Arizona next week--for the Paint the Aspens trip. I love it there, listening to the elk at night by a fire in the closed summer camp of one of the high lakes. Rejuvenation and revitalization!

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

Sep 27 - Working over an old one - Goat Kid

Working over an old painting can be very rewarding--if you know what you're doing! Remember while back I had a bonfire of a LOT of old paintings? Well, this one of the goat kid (upper image) was salvaged from that bonfire. It was going to be a gift for a friend of mine, but somehow looking at it ready to be packed up just bothered me... Here I was going to fry this turkey (ok, goatie) in the flames, and yet it was good enough to "gift" to my friend? No.
So I put it on the easel tonight, and worked it over. I knew that I wanted the colors to be more harmonious, and I wanted to see better relationships between the sunlight areas and the shadows. Now it is at the first stage, having covered up many of the garish colors that represented early endeavors with the Color System. Although not finished at this stage, I can see where its going and am more pleased with its evolution.

Tomorrow I will continue it and hopefully end up with a painting worthy of leaving my studio. But my friend will have to wait a while longer until it is dry enough to ship! It's a 12 x 12 oil.

On other news, the HEAT is ON. Record-breaking heat for September has been registered for yesterday and today, and is expected to continue tomorrow and through the week. Whew. Everybody but the goats are hunkering down in the basement studio where the inside temperature went up to 87 while the outdoor thermometer read 111 degrees at 5:30 pm. At almost nine p.m. it is still 95 out there. Talk about HOT DOGS!?!
Here's Niko (GROWING) and Willow comatose on the cool studio floor. She's six months old today. What a monster.

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

Sep 26 - Oh Wow! 24 x 18 Acrylic finished.

Now it is done, photographed, framed, shipped to Georgetown, Kentucky, and if all the planets align, it won't return to Two Trees.

So what did I do between yesterday and today? Let's look at the images and see...

Ah, of course! The mist. The "atmosphere" that carries the image. Softening areas of the canvas with the addition of layers of acrylic medium and paint, thinning those layers so the underpainting shows through, creating the mist.

The same technique was used to add the sun rays coming in from the right side. But in doing that area, I used the warm palette, instead of the Cool Box.

I didn't want to do any changing to the lower third--it is too close to the viewer to be majorly affected by the mist, and I really like the reflections in the water, so I left it alone.

Tomorrow I fill more of the orders for the Colorful Painting #4 Two DVD set. This morning I came down to the studio to a water nightmare where the front planter leaked through the wall of my basement workroom. Eight gallons came up with the rug cleaning machine, and the fans are running to dry out the bits left. Good thing the temps have been so high--this is drying up in record time. Some positives came out of leaving that hose bib running last night--my workroom and the theater carpet got a good cleaning!!!

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

Sep 25 - Now the Fun Begins!!!

Might look a bit finished at this point, at least for those of us who are not "tight" painters! But it isn't. I still have the final step to do for the atmosphere--to bring in the mists and the sunlight coming through the trees. This works so well with acrylics, I can hardly wait to show it to you! But that's tomorrow... If I were painting in oils, I would have had to take a break at this point and wait for the painting surface to develop enough strength to handle the glazing of this effect. Probably would have been four days in my climate--which is over 100 degrees again. No fires though...

I have pulled together the near ground the the midground by making the areas below the horses more interesting and varied. There is a lot of subtle movement going on within those areas by the use of value and color shifts. A lot more fun to DO it than to talk about it though! I'm really pleased with the colors in the stream--can you see the juxtaposition of the yellow orange with the red violet there, toned down? Gotta love the Color System!!

The DVDs ordered have been sent out and I'm waiting for some more feedback on them. So far, everything is positive! Now it is Saturday night, the house is hot and the moon is up, so I'm going to go play outside for a while! See you tomorrow!

You can order the latest Color System DVD HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Sep 24 - Almost Covered, and Design!! (and Aikido)

Now that the canvas is 99% covered, and without details, anyone can see the feeling of evening light through the trees and the twilight cast of night sky on the lower 2/3 of the canvas. The only details define the near ground with the big shapes that let us know what's going on in the stream and lower canvas.

I've included a duplicate image below, because I wanted anyone interested in design and "pathways" from yesterday's blog to see what I mean graphically. Most artists learn by seeing, (at least I do!) so here goes:

In the image to the left, everywhere there is an implied or real edge (transition area) that is important to the design, I've drawn a light line. You can enlarge these images by clicking on them.) The primary focal point of the horses (which are not there completely yet) is the end- or through- point of many of those curving lines.

The curves are intentionally serene, not abrupt nor jagged, creating a peaceful flow throughout the canvas. Any small jutting shapes (such as on the mini-islands in the stream) are small and of little consequence to the overall design.

Although this landscape might be a combination of scenes on Fay's farm in Georgia, it is the ARTIST who picks and chooses subjects and then places and evaluates what becomes important (or not) on the small surface of a canvas. That's our JOB. It ain't an easy one, but never gets dull.

In my aikido training, I didn't realize how much the last four years of training have affected me--always thinking I'm such a beginner--until I witnessed the testing last night. Seeing those people on the mat doing the first test I'd passed many months ago, and just KNOWING what was supposed to happen made me realize that in all things, like painting, we need to constantly practice to get better. Sometimes we don't realize what we don't know until we surround ourselves with others who know more, and know less. I'm doing an Iriminage throw in this sketch.

You can order my newest instructional dvd on twilight and misty light HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE. (Only one space left in November).
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Sep 23 - Covering the Canvas with Big Brushes

The painting at this stage looks like a forest fire as I paint with a one-inch filbert. That's because of the high contrast between the heat of the underpainting (mostly cadmium orange and cadmium yellow) and the cool box colors of the misty light I'm putting in on the lower portions. The colors for this part are mostly mixes of burnt umber, thalo green and ultramarine blue and white. I had a brush full of thalo green when I put in the shape of that "C" on the midground left--it's a marker for the structure of how I want your eye to travel through the painting. Later it will become more subtle. Can you trace your visual path from the lower left (water) through the gentle "S" curve up to where the sun will come through the trees? That's called "leading the eye" and is a good way to welcome your viewer into your painting.

The secondary interest is in the stream area, with primary interest on the mare and foal under the tree in the upper third. Varying the way I hold my brush creates the many different marks for visual interest, too.

Thank you for ordering the new DVD set! I'm filling orders this morning. I'd like to ask the first folks to evaluate the whole shebang as a favor to me for the web site. If you get a slip of paper in your DVD box with this request, know that I really would appreciate your thoughts. I do welcome any reviews, of course, but these first ones are really important!

The latest DVD "Twilight and Misty Light" can be purchased HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Sep 22 - The First Paint and the DVD Links!

As I start adding color to this acrylic (24 x 18), I'm thinking about the value structure at every moment. Even at this stage, you can see the lighter values going into the darker areas on the upper areas of this canvas. I'm completely in the COOL BOX, since this painting will be almost twilight, with only a flash of evening sun coming through the trees on the upper left. There will be a stream in the lower third, and I've laid in some of the "Trifecta" sky colors there already. (Trifecta is the trio of hard workers of Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin/Quinacradone Magenta and Yellow Ochre). Everything else you see at this stage is the four darkest values from the Cool Box. I'm using a one-inch filbert for these big areas.

YES!! FINALLY!!! The link for the newest DVD is up and running!!! (My internet at the house fell through the cracks so I'm typing and working from a wifi about a mile from my studio. Never a dull moment, eh?) Here's the second menu for the Advanced Techniques included on the second DVD in the set. Now who's going to be the FIRST to order? Here's the direct URL:
http://www.elinart.com/pages/dvd4.html

I spent the morning shipping the painting to Lexington, and again working with my friend Ron Wood on his glass projects. Back to the easel for more light and color tomorrow!

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

Happy FULL MOON!!!

Sep 21 - New Painting and the DVDs are DONE!

What you'll be seeing in the next five days is what happened in my studio in two hours. I love a challenge, and surely had one with this opportunity. Karen LaBach of the American Academy of Equine Art asked me to send a "small" painting for the World Equestrian Games display, since I'm one of two instructors with AAEA workshops coming up in the spring (mine's here in California!). I said I have a 12 x 16, and she replied, "no, the other artist's is 18 x 24, so that's what we consider 'small' on that display space."

Ulp. So I don't have ANYthing recent that represents the Color System that wasn't lost in the boxes from my workshops. I remember one I'd done in Georgia that I don't even have a photo record of which just felt right to redo, differently, of course! So with reference material from that magical time, I've started (and finished) this 24 x 18 canvas, which will be shipped out tomorrow to Kentucky. The reference material is on each side, and those of you who remember the painting I did on the last day of the Georgia workshop will remember the right-hand photo.

The Colorful Painting 4 master DVDs are in the hands of the duplication service, and I'll have the copies back Wednesday! The "Advanced Techniques" on the second disk is what took so much more time... there are TWELVE different areas of advanced techniques! From mid-ground transitions to edges, to brushwork, to color balance--it's ALL there, adding another half hour to the production! (And three days of editing, with voice overs.) Here's the sub-menu I had to make to handle half the topics. Each section represents one-sixth of the information.

Because of the painting marathon today, I haven't updated the web site so you can buy them yet. The price for the two DVD set will be $34.95 with $4 shipping. TOMORROW... I promise! Links, I PROMISE!!!

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