July 31 - Going to the Dogs!

I'm starting this 9 x 12 oil of one of the two Teddy Roosevelt Terriers today, as I am enjoying the "recuperation" from my birthday a few days ago... turning "of an age" can be solemn, or it can be a bit crazy. I took the latter path...no surprise.

So today, to do penance if I were so inclined to think like that, I'm going to the dogs! Inspiration for this painting came literally "right under my feet". In the leg space under my roll top desk (where I sit typing this) there's a donut dog bed and I glanced down and saw Onslow in a familiar sleeping position. So I took out my camera and lights, and took several images, adjusting the lighting and shooting without a flash. The source material is below. Total comfort!

The linen canvas was scumbled with an under layer of ultramarine blue, burnt umber and yellow ochre, setting the tone for the colors to come. This scheme will be with the Color System, and I'll keep the complimentary dominance of blue/orange and yellow/purple to make it work.

You can see I don't spend a lot of time drawing, although for this unusual pose I did do a sketch in my sketchbook to lock down the location of all those airborne paws. The painting is coming along nicely now.

There may be one or more spaces in the Sebastopol Color Boot Camp in August--less than two weeks before I head up north of San Francisco to both give a painting demonstration in Ukiah, and then the workshop and demonstration in Sebastopol. Please let me know if you'd like a dose of "Yellin' by Elin" in this Color Boot Camp workshop. Please contact me using the email link below, and I'll forward your interest to the person in charge. I hope to meet some of you there!

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

Jul 21 - Corrections to the backlit Demo Cowboy

Remember I said that I wanted to make some value changes to this painting? Well, easy to do with Resin Gel and some glazing over the areas that needed to drop down in value. Now I think this one is finished, and holding the "punch" that it needed for this time of day.

The question to all students of the Color System--would you have done what I did to make this painting work, or would you have chosen to do something else? I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep those values "reading right" for the time of day. That's why we make those little value studies for you to take with you in a workshop--so the tools are at hand when you're ready to work on your own. This painting is now clearly a small light with a large dark in mostly midtones. Before, it may have had the color, but it didn't have a clear identity for the value structure. My bad. All fixed now!

This is a 12 x 16 oil which will be mounted on a rigid substrate and available for purchase down the road a ways. Right now I want to look at it, and get a really good photograph of it for the upcoming book.

On workshops, I have a few spaces left in the Maine Color Boot Camp--Fall Colors for plein air, but mostly studio work on the Color System in a fabulous location on Mt. Desert Island. Please email me if you'd like more information. This is such a wonderful vacation spot, and hardly better with fall color, with those loooong shadows and painting in a Color Boot Camp! September 21 through 25 in Bernard, Maine--totally on the island! Tent camping is available close by in Acadia National Park, and there are many bed and breakfast places as well as motels to stay.


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

Jul 20 - Colorful Study of a Goat Kid

Ah, the heat is cooking my brain, so I hide out in the cool studio (daylight basement, stays in the 80s when the outside temp is over 105!) and do work here. There are four dogs here, too, and everyone else who cannot come in (goats, horse, chickens) have plenty of shade and water.

Today's job was to organize and sort some of the thousands of photographs I have taken over the years. But (no surprise--ha!), I got distracted! This image of one of the many goat kids I've had and it just asked to be painted. So I brought out a 12 x 12 box canvas (with 1.5 inch depth) and did this colorful study of the shadow sides on this little fellow.

These colors are stated more strongly than some of my other paintings, because it was/is my intent to make the coloration easy to understand. It's a great morning light lesson painting to learn how to mix those shadow areas on a white animal. It's an oil, and painted around the edges, so no frame is needed. Available to a new or returning collector for $295. Got goats?

Congratulations to new collector John Wickham of Los Angeles, California on his purchase of "Sycamore Leaf" from my collection.

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

Jul 13 - Backlit Horse and Rider Demo for the Workshop

This 12 x 16 oil was done as a demonstration of the skies theory in the Color System during the July workshop. The theory is that there is a warm circle near the source of illumination and that it shifts to the Cool Box outside the circle.

I spent some time tweaking it a bit to bring it to this level, and might again go after it to truly finish it (getting those values right!) in the next few days. I'm pleased how the light comes through on the tail, though.

I'd like you to see that the source material is only the jumping-off point for paintings. Here's the photograph that inspired the painting. This is Frank Gerhardt on Bonus, his appaloosa gelding that he raised and trained. Quite a legend in our local area for trail riding!
I love the memories that have come out of my camera over the years. (And it allows me to deduct my horse expenses since I couldn't get these images unless I actually went on the rides!)

WORKSHOP spots OPEN! Northern California, north of San Francisco! Three days near the redwood country, and in the quaint town of Sebastopol.
August 17-19, $295 through the AWS group there in a lovely location, even if it is Color Boot Camp! Please email me if you'd like to hold one of the spots and I'll send you the contact info. If you've been too far away to do a Color Boot Camp down here in Riverside, this is your chance. I'm going east for the Maine workshop in September, then one here (Riverside) in October. As long as they continue to sell out, I know that what I'm doing has validity. COLOR BOOT CAMP!!

P.S. That color boot camp wanna-be in Scottsdale in their latest blurb is NOT an official Color Boot Camp. Only Elin Pendleton can bring you the "true" Boot Camp experience!

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

Jul 12 - Revamping the Web Site

With the weather so hot and no relief in sight, I thought a nice blue image of Hawai'i might sooth your eyes.

I'm revamping the web sites, page by page, while I stay deep in the cool studio. I've found many images that have never been on the web--either I overlooked them, or they slipped by me. Here's one...

This is an acrylic painting (12 x 9) done on location from the loading docks of Coconut Island, the site of the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology in Kaneohe Bay, and the waters there were so clear that the docks seemed to float in the turquoise blues. This painting, "View to the Pali" is available for $225.

I remember that day of plein air painting like it was yesterday--I was a guest of the local art group to this usually-off-limits site, and would love to return another time to paint these glorious blues!

Hawai'i will always be in my heart, because my mom and dad lived there during the 1930s/1940s and knew "old" Hawaii before commercial air travel made it so convenient a tourist destination. My last trip there was to scatter their ashes per their wishes.

Here's an aerial view of Coconut Island, which used to be the private retreat of Edwin Pauley before it came into the hands of the University of Hawaii. I can see right where I was seated when I painted this!



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

Jul 4 - Virtual pARTy Challenge, and a Demo

In the workshop this morning, I had to demonstrate morning light, so I picked up on an image from Linda Shantz, who organized a virtual pARTy for artists to do an image from the same source.

This is a 16 x 20 acrylic done for a morning light painting in the Color System, and depicts a very pregnant mare in a pasture. I modified the source material quite a lot and am quite pleased with this painting. Redesigning source material and making it one's own is the mark of a confident artist, with an arsenal of ability to make source material just the "jumping off point" for the art. I love doing this! And in front of the eleven participants, I finished this up for them in record time.

You can see the source material and some of the other entries here. Mine won't be there for a while until my registration is cleared.

Congratulations to new collector Louise Sackett from Santee, California, on her purchase of yesterday's painting of the California Coast in moonlight!

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

Moonlight Becomes you... Acrylic 9 x 12 Demonstration

Hello again! I'm in the misdt of the workshop here in my studio in Riverside, and demonstrated this acrylic painting for the eleven participants today. It's moonlight, and from images I took (in the late afternoon!) up along the Big Sur Coast of Northern California.

It's fun to work on changing daylight resources to other times of day, and not too difficult, once you're familiar with the Color System (in this case, cool box and lower the light values).

Tomorrow the students will be approaching morning light or afternoon light, and evening light with the full Color System. I hope to post some of their "Silly Paintings" they did today, but forgot to ask permission of them. It's been warm here, but not as hot as yesterday (over 100). The studio workshop area is cooler than outside by at least 15 degrees, and we have fans running, so it's not too bad.

For the Fourth of July celebration, a friend sent me this link, with a nice music video representing our diverse cultures under the umbrella of our freedom. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ( http://www.bornagainamerican.org/ ).

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

Jun 29 - Onion in Oils, Lesson on Inherent Color, and Workshop Coming!

Back into the oils for an 8 x 10 study of a red onion! I love making up the new pillboxes--my old ones were crusty and the lids finally cracked after being in and out of the freezer so many times. There is something very familiar and exciting about putting those Color System hues in their appropriate boxes.

This painting is VERY important to Color Boot Camp graduates, because it focuses so much on the "INHERENT COLOR" (You know who you are who have heard this from me!) The onion's inherent color is a cool red--alizarin, from the cool box. I could not switch completely to the warm red (cadmium red light) when my brushes came around to the lit side, so it "reads right" even on that lighter side, because I obeyed the rule of inherent color by influencing the dominant color of the object. I definitely influenced that light side with those warm box colors, though. This is a nice study, available through ebay. Just search for "Red Onion Oil Painting - Elin Pendleton 8 x 10". I've decided that listing the work when I post the email to all of you is a good time-saver. Here's the link if you want to get there quick!

I've updated my web site with recent paintings, too--at least the elinart site. The Daily Paintings web site is only current to January. I hope to get more work on that done this week. I do have to elevate my leg for parts of my day as my hip injury heals.

The next workshop starts this coming Thursday--Fourth of July weekend. I have had one cancellation, so there is a spot available. Do you want the Color System Boot Camp? Email me!

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

Jun 21 - Recovering, and the 30 x 24 Still Life

The still life is about as finished as it's going to be, seeing it now. It didn't take too much fiddle-arting around to get it to this stage with those open acrylics. I finished the "real" color note of that purple plate by breaking the Color System rules to get that luscious of a plate color--using the cools in the light. In man-made objects we can do that, and it creates a wondrous excitement in otherwise follow-the-rules paintings.

I've not done still life in a LONG time, and found it different from the old days. I think I need to do more, perhaps some smaller subjects, and revisit the onions and other fruits. It will come. I do love the energy of this painting in the brushwork.

Sorry about not emailing more often--last weekend I crashed the scooter and have been limping around here feeling sorry for myself. The bruises and cuts are nothing serious, except the one on my hip where I hit the pavement. Dang, that asphalt is HARD. I've got more colors than the Color System in my left leg! I need to keep it up for a few hours each day. Turns out my aikido training again saved my hide, because it could ahve been MUCH more serious. As it was, I hit and rolled and did a 360 on my shoulder before coming to rest on my back. I just went with the motion, and didn't brace, and perhaps saved my 60 year old bones. Scooter's fine, just some cosmetic damage.

So I'm fine now, and rarin' to go into the July Color Boot Camp.

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

Jun 9 - The Acrylic Still Life Continues

Now I'm so much more pleased with this one. It is coming along well, with glazing done with traditional gloss medium and colors from the Open Acrylics, blending and unifying the upper left corner, and defining the green plate. The red grapes went in very fast, and yet are not painted as individual grapes. I'll still add much more, and have put off adding the lavender leftmost plate. I need to pull the entire composition together before making this bold statement.

I've thought about time of day for this painting, and it is definitely morning. I added bits of warm yellow to the whites, and of course there are all sorts of grayed purples in the shadows. Yes, even interiors can reflect the time of day--it just makes a better painting overall, in my opinion.

Every once in a while I like to share with you other artists' work, someone who has been in a Color Boot Camp. Since my epiphany of being a teacher vs. being an artist first, I want to share this site with you--this is my friend Louise Mellon, of Aiken, South Carolina. She paints what she loves and what is around her--mostly horses and their companions. I'm always pleasured by her courage in her work and her stunning designs. Check her work in progress through her blog: http://louisemellon.blogspot.com/

OK, OK.... if you want to be on the list for the October workshop, I'm going to take names. (Now stop pestering me! Just kidding!) I don't want to have to go to a lottery system, yet I understand everyone's frustration about not getting into a Color Boot Camp.

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

June 8 - Back to the Normal after the Workshop

As I continue to cover the canvas, I'm working on the lower 2/3, bringing the colors back with the new, hopefully more effective design. The flowers "grew", and the plates moved down and off a bit. Again, I've moved to the Open Acrylics by Golden, to give me some more working time to make decisions. Although I love my traditional acrylics, working on a larger canvas tends to make me hurry when I'm using them.

I got a call from the Escondido gallery--suggesting that most of his clientele have homes that react better to "warmer" palettes. But he said that of all the artists' work he took over to show one of his high-end clients, it was my work that worked best. The Color System... what can I say???

Well, it is back to the "New" normal... It is mighty quiet around here now, after all the new Boot Camp graduates left yesterday, Sunday. The July workshop is full, and I'm looking at the second weekend in October for the next three-day Riverside Boot Camp. Those of you on the East Coast still have an opportunity to relax and paint your socks off in Maine in September. There's another three-day workshop scheduled for August in Sebastopol, but at this time is only open to their membership. I'll keep you posted if that changes.

Here's a photo from the workshop that was kindly sent to me from the Canadian contingent after she arrived back home. I send it to show the rack behind me with the work of the students from the first day--they did either moonlight or misty light paintings and the new "silly painting" using just the CS values. I'm wearing one of the "I survived Color Boot Camp" aprons, and of course, Sparky is doing his "bird on a wire" act.

Happy painting!

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

Jun 6 - The Workshop for June and that Still Life

"When in doubt, paint it out," I said a few days ago. This 30 x 24 has been sitting on my easel since then, asking for attention. Today, after the workshop was over, I invited those interested to stick around and see how this would be changed. Most opted to continue painting after a great idea of pizza delivered to the door. They are dedicated!
So I redesigned the structure on this painting, now using the Golden Open acrylics instead of the traditional acrylics I started with. Fun, juicy and fast painting! Here I'm blocking in the lower half, and I glazed over a lot of the upper half with yellow ochre and gloss medium.

I redrew the plates and the vase larger and expanded the floral portion to more properly balance the composition. And just approached it as though it were differently composed in the first place. I like it better already!

The workshop is going well, with ten Color Boot Campers delving into nuances of the Color System, and taking control of their painting decisions, instead of letting the source material drive their work. It's refreshing to see the new paintings coming off their brushes! More tomorrow, and perhaps one or two will let me use their work in an email to you.

The second image is what the floral looked like after I did the major surgery with the brush and painted OUT the lower two thirds. Hey, I painted it once, I can do it again, and probably better. So it goes.

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

June 2 - Paintings gone Wrong and Beauty Elsewhere

Uh oh. Some times an artist forgets what they're doing, and I'm happy to report to you that this painting is becoming a great teaching example of that!

Those lovely grays are gone now, and I caught myself getting so enamored with the small white rose, that I forgot one of the things I stress with students, "Don't rush the focal point!" So although this painting has some good things going on with it, I have a feeling that it is going to undergo some major surgery shortly.

Hey, this happens to all of us. But most of 'em arteests aren't courageous (or stupid) enough to share the ones that aren't going so well with the general public. I've had an epiphany of knowledge that I'm a teacher first and an artist second, so I see the greater good in sharing ALL the issues with painting, and that includes problems. Since I took this last image, I've painted OUT the lower 2/3 of the canvas. Gone. "When in doubt, paint it out." So it goes. See, I, too, have to slap myself up side the head and put myself back on track. The painting will get much better because of it. After all, "it's just paint".

On another note, here's a bit of beauty from my yard... after I took the image of the picket fence, I walked up to the front patio, turned around and took this second image over the koi pond to the rose garden. I love scenes like this... it may end up as a painting, too.

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

June 1 - Continuing with the Acrylic Still Life

I'm still covering the canvas using only the cool colors--the whites you see are the canvas itself, which flies in the face of my normal procedure of toning the canvas. But since the source material is so harmonious and subtle in coloration, I wanted to use the whate canvas to "keep the sparkle" as I continue to develop the shapes.

Yes, not a BIT of warm in here yet, and the harmonies of color are really pleasant. I'm using the "Trifecta" of the sky trio with white to create all those areas of gray variations. All you Color Boot Camp Graduates will know those!

On the rest of the canvas, I'm just putting in the general shapes of the things--such as the grapes and the plate shadows. There is a bit of pure on the vase now, in the shadows on the left. Ultramarine and white. It looks so warm and advancing because with the Color System, if you use a cool color solo with just white added, and surround it with other cool mixes that have two or three others combined, there's an optical illusion created. That illusion makes the purer colors advance, and appear warmer. Can you see it?

On other news, I'm clearing out the workroom for the June COLOR BOOT CAMP here this coming weekend. Twelve people are going to fill their heads and canvases with the time of day system that seems to be revolutionizing painting for people who want good color, every time.

I'm putting in a white picket fence around my rose garden this week--here's an image of it in process. OK, all the stereotypes about "houses with white picket fences" come to mind, but I've always loved pickets and roses, and now I have both right outside my studio windows. Life is good. But then we also have a swarm of bees that came into the back yard this afternoon, so maybe not. A local beekeeper is coming by this evening to take them for his hives. That's the best for the bees, and they'll be gone before they can get hungry and testy.

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

May 31 - Starting the Still Life in Acrylics

This is a 30 x 24 canvas, and the first lay-in of the large shapes is presented for you in this lesson on painting a still life using the Color System.

These colors are blends from the cool box, and create a harmony of related hues, and every one of them is at least two hues from that box. There is NO pure color at this stage. All of the shapes that are going in are going to play background roles for the coming layers.

I'm also attaching the photo of the setup I'm using, as this is from life. Sometimes the setup and arrangement of objects is just as important, if not moreso, than the actual painting! This is set up in my studio to the left of my easel, and is lit with one 50 watt halogen spotlight. I chose these objects from my "stash" for their unity of color and analogous relationships. It will be fun to see what happens with the Color System and my brushes!

I hope you'll enjoy the journey through this painting with me...


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

May 22 - UCR Botanic Gardens Plein Air Primavera

Last Sunday found me on the grounds of the University of California Riverside Botanic Gardens as a guest artist for the Primavera event. Many fine restaurants and wineries were on hand with samples of their cuisine and beverages--and I enjoyed that as well as the light and activity.

It was a warm afternoon, and so I painted this scene of the tents, ribbon banners and people gathered around socializing in a quick 9 x 12 Golden Open acrylic painting. Mostly just gestural mark-making with the brush, nothing is clearly defined. But that lets YOU define it in your mind.

The warm and cool boxes are much in evidence with the light and shadows working together.

Here's another memory of the misty morning light in Florida, on the grounds of the Carriage Museum. Many ideas for future paintings down the "road" in reviewing these images. They are so peaceful. Grand place, as is the Georgia farm and the East Coast in general. I'm ready to return!

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

May 21 - One from the Workshop (Mine) :-)

After the wonderful paintings from workshop folks, I thought I'd send you one of my own--done during the Florida workshop on the last couple of days.

This Amish image came from the collection of Judi Evans, and is used with permission. I used the subject to convey noon light, and loved the drama of the deep shadows and the interesting angle of the horses juxtaposed with the lean out on each side. Painting noon light can be fun, when the subject is as interesting as this one!

It is a 12 x 16 acrylic on textured canvas, and is available for $350, unframed directly from me. It's much better in person.

In other news, Rural Heritage Magazine is featuring my art relating to these draft horses in their upcoming issue. Summer work and big horses!

I'm also gearing up for the next workshop in less than two weeks!

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

May 18 - Accommodations and more Florida

Another artist from the Florida Color Boot Camp, applying the Color System to make a good painting go into orbit. Nancy Moskovitz has a blog where she shares information on her art journey, and I was honored to have her among the wonderful group painting and learning at the Carriage Museum near the Villages, in central Florida last week. Her "AHA" moment, she says, "Just one? Learning how to use yellows, especially lemon yellow to create a morning mood. Learning how to keep sunlit fields in the distance with ochre. Thalo blue in sunlight; thalo green in shadow - wow!"

I just loved this evocative depiction of a common subject. Can you tell I love teaching? Both my Riverside workshops are full now, and I'm busy clipping and snipping around the gardens to neaten up the place after an absence of two weeks.

In Florida, below's an image of the Wisteria Lodge, one of two that were our accommodations for this workshop. Amazing place, the Austin Carriage Museum! Beauty in the site and beauty in the light. I slept in my Hennessy Hammock out in the trees and loved every moment of the Florida nights. The hammock has a bug net that prevents unwanted intruders, and it worked well even in the rain.

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

May 17 - Home and Off to Paint Again

The Florida and Georgia workshops are history now, and I'm full of memories and have many images to share with you! I don't have images of my own work to share, since those paintings are either out of my hands or on their way home in shipping boxes. But I'm honored to share the work of one of the students, Jackie, who has said that knowing the Color System was the last key she needed to make her work reach that higher level. This is her 12 x 16 oil for her misty painting, and isn't it lovely? She already has a foundation of drawing, composition and a great "feel" for depicting the Florida landscape, so adding the time of day to her work is like the flowers on the icing on the decorated cake!

And here's the entire workshop on the front porch of one of our lodgings, on our last day, sharing the final images we were working on--backlit, and sunset skies. Represented are oils, acrylics and watercolors. Nobody had to say "cheese" to this group, and they all survived Color Boot Camp! I will miss them, and the fun we had. Some new terms they added to the CBCs are "Friggin' Green" and "Wine O'Clock". They want me to come back next year.This afternoon I'm painting on location at the UCR Botanic Gardens for their "Primavera in the Gardens" event. I hope to post the newest images later this week.

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

May 9 - Thank you and Goodbyes

Here's the demonstration painting for morning light done as part of the lecture for the Georgia workshop this week. It's a 12 x 16 and done with acrylics (traditional) on a board-backed canvas and is one of the views across the woods and hayfields of Georgia. I really like the light patterns that fall on the jump on the right of the scene. I've walked this path on Fay's farm many times and never tire of it.

The students ("Recruits") in the Color Boot Camps are producing outstanding work--all because of the Color System applied to their curret style and subject matter. I'm honored to be teaching such a great group, and will be heading optimistically to Florida tomorrow to meet up with yet another great group of folks with a desire to know the Color System.

Here I am doing the demonstration for noon light--on a 16 x 20 canvas in Golden Open acrylics, pill boxes at the ready! Fun demo, and I'll post the finished painting later this week.

I want to thank all of you--especially those to whom I've not had time to personally reply--who wrote about Shadow. It is tough to lose a pet, and those who wrote such kind emails cement for me the connection I feel to all of you, and for that I thank you sincerely. I have a busy life, yet there are those bittersweet moments of memory that still bring an ache to my heart.

Now I'm off to Florida tomorrow morning, and will be seeing new faces, new Color Boot Camp Recruits, with Sparky is by my side! I hope I'll have a good Internet connection while I'm there!

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

May 8 - The Georgia Workshop Finished Up

It's Friday night, and the five-day workshop is finished here in Georgia, and what a great one it was! The students painted beautiful paintings, the time of day with the Color System keps falling off their brushes, and all went away worn out and ready to apply the new knowledge to their work.

I'm tired, but satisfied that I did my best in sharing the Color System with them. Tonight I reflect on how it went, what I can do better next week in Florida, and enjoy the quiet introspection.

Here for your pleasure is the 9 x 12 oil I did as a demonstration piece for evening light. This is "Susie" one of Fay's brood cows, and I quickly painted this for the demonstration and lecture of evening light. It is now in the hands of returning Boot Camper Joanna Karpay of Tampa, Florida, and on it's way to its new home.

And all of us had a silly night last night when they presented Fay (hostess on the left) and me with capes adorned with lines of praise and humor during the annual camp fire dinner we have now for the workshops. Note the full moon making fools of us all! What a great workshop, great place, and great folks!

Two days, and Sparky and I will be driving to Florida for the next workshop. Stay tuned for more images!

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

May 6 - Georgia Workshop First Paintings

Yes, some of my students in the Georgia workshop do WONDERFUL paintings!!
After the value studies in the first day of the Color Boot Camp workshop, the "recruits" are given the challenge of painting without mixing--but choosing values (lightness or darkness) based purely on the colors straight from the tube. The results are wonderfully colorful, exciting, contemporary works. I share two of them with you in this email.

The first one of the draft horse is done in acrylics and is an 8 x 8 canvas. It was a great challenge for these folks to not mix colors, yet they all admitted that the exercise taught them volumes about the true values of their pigments.

When we know the values of our colors, it allows us to make exciting color choices and perhaps not trying to mix on the palette. It also showed the students that colors have an "inherent value" when they come out the tube.

The second painting I've attached is of a rooster done in oils. It is 9 x 12 inches and has a little glare on the right side. But it, too, is very successful in the exercise.

The third day has us doing misty light and finishing up our moonlight work from yesterday. These students are spot on with design and drawing skills, yet I have one who has not used acrylics before...just watercolors!

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

May 4 - Workshop in Georgia Going On!

I'm in Georgia teaching the first of two workshops--five days of Color Boot Camp. This acrylic was a quick study done yesterday to demonstrate the value plan of a large light in midtones. The weather is WONDERFUL for this California gal, with rain ad cool breezes, I'm "plumping up" as the moisture kisses my face!

This image might look familiar to you because of my doing it for another workship at another time of day. This one is morning light, and that one was evening light. One can vary the time of day when working with source material with the Color System. Right now the students are doing a brand new exercise of painting without mixing any colors together--just finding the correct values by deciding which color straight from the tube is the value they need. Their brains are hurting!

The very sad note, and one of the reasons I haven't been able to post, is that we lost Shadow the Tibetan Mastiff pup to parvo virus a week ago. I cannot tell you how much of a hole his death has put in our lives, but it has taken until now to even write of it. He is buried up on the hill by Chiron's corral, and near the pond where he would drink and play.

Everyone else is fine, and Sparky is here with me in Georgia. A fun week ahead for all of us!

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

Apr 11 - Workshop Demonstration in stages

In doing these Color Boot Camps, I need to demonstrate times of day for the attendees. Here's the first step of the acrylic for backlight, and I'll present it here in stages, so you can enjoy the process as well as the finished demo. This is a 9 x 12 surface (under the workshop lights some glare upper right).

I start by saying how important values are for backlit subjects. So in putting a large dark area down and covering the canvas this much at the get-go, I've "darkened the stage" for the drama that is to come. It's a mix of thalo green and burnt umber. Those swirly marks are my "designing mind" planting the location of the focal points that are to come. More on this one tomorrow.

Here's another image from the April workshop, this one done by Christine F., who was absolutely pleased that the Color System created this 18x24 oil canvas without modifying her painting style or subject choice! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did seeing it unfold so quickly to this point in just one afternoon. It validates my faith in the Color System to help artists change their work for the better. I'd like to also quote a recent "CBC" attendee who posted this email to the ColorSystem group on Yahoo Groups:

I finally did it! After lurking in the shadows of this list, reading all the posts while drooling with envy, I WENT TO BOOT CAMP!!! And am I GLAD I did. It was way more valuable than I could ever have imagined. I learned, and learned and then learned some more. Elin is a fantastic teacher with an abundance of enthusiasm, knowledge and generosity. I enjoyed every moment...I suggest strongly that you get yourself to Boot Camp. And if you can't get there quickly, at least start by studying the color flash cards. Your life as an artist, and your paintings will never be the same! Thanks, Elin, FOR EVERYTHING.

Congratulations to new Collector Donna Matson from Los Angeles/Palm Desert on her purchase of my painting "Solitude" from the PAAR Whitewater Preserve Show. See the painting here (new window).

You can see my entire blog HERE.

My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE. (Spaces only in the Maine-in-September workshop now.)

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

Apr 8 - Another Demonstration using Golden Open Acrylics

I am becoming enamored with the Golden Open Acrylics. I used them today (in their cool and warm pill boxes) for a demonstration for the Hemet Valley Art Association. The end result is this 16 x 20 acrylic you see here, called "Vernal Pools, Santa Rosa". Completely without reference except memories in my head.

What I enjoy about the Open Acrylics is the process of putting paint down that dries less quickly than traditional acrylics, yet still is tacky enough to have drag and blending opportunities, not quite like, but similar to, oils. The drag over the tacky parts is easily visible in the grasses. The blending is there in the distant mountains and water reflections. I talked the entire time during the demonstration, which lasted about an hour and a half. The HVAA were kind to let me come back, since I missed last month!

From the workshop, I wanted to share the moonlight painting that Harmony did on the last day. She really "got" it in this depiction of the waterfall--using a noontime color snapshot she took herself, and mentally changing the light to make this evocative view using the Color System. Just so you know, the paintings I'm showing from the workshop have had less than 5% of my hand, if that. Most, like this one, are 100% from the brushes of the attendee.

If you'd like a look into my life here at Two Trees, my friend Theresa who came through on a visit took these photographs while here. Lots of Chiron, and the workshop, as well as around the yard. I love seeing my life through another's eyes--it is full of surprises! Go HERE.

You can see my entire blog HERE.

My remaining workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE, updated. The June workshop is filled and I've opened another California one that goes over July 4th weekend. It already has two signups. Still one or two spots in Florida and several in September in Maine, though.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Apr 7 - Workshop Over, Next One Coming

I just opened the June Riverside workshop today, and already six of the ten slots are filled with deposits. Wow. I know that the Color System is such a needed tool for artists, as I can see that it works; I saw it in students' work this past weekend. I took some more images from this last workshop, and will be sharing their paintings with you in the days to come.

Here is the one I did as the demonstration for evening light, on a 12 x 16 panel in oils, using the Color System to convey time of day on the light falling on the pack mule and the landscape. It is a quick study, roughly done in about 30 minutes. However even at this loose stage, the light is set and the color "reads right" for the warm late afternoon. The students then took their own source material, and spent a half day doing their own paintings in evening light.

Here's Pat's 8 x 10 acrylic which she did from her own black and white photograph. I enjoy seeing every student's painting style in these workshops. And so fun to see the wheels turning in everyone's head as they THINK about painting!

I have a new flyer for the workshop in Florida. You can view it online here, and please share it with your friends "over there".

You can see my entire blog HERE.

My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE-Florida and Maine!

Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Apr 4 - Color Boot Camp in Progress--Student Samples

After the first full day of the Color Boot Camp ended, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the students' paintings instead of mine. They say one can measure the success of a teacher by the quality of the students. Everyone "nailed" the morning light lesson, after the opening morning learning the importance of values in designing paintings. Here are two of the students' pieces, both completed to this stage in just under three hours. I asked permission to share them, and they enthusiastically said, "Yes!".

First is Christine's image of an elephant in water. She came in with a standard photograph taken by a friend on safari, and it was a traditionally gray and blue photo. By applying the color system, and relocating the head off to one side, she accomplished the goal of creating a dynamic composition and also set the time of day to morning. She'll add the ripples and define the water and the details on this 12 x 16 oil later. But this painting shows a great "AHA" moment for her, in that she said she'd never think to add the yellow to the right side of the pachyderm.

Second is a morning landscape from an ordinary photograph taken by Claudette. She finished this large (16 x 20 oil) in the afternoon of the first day! Knowing what colors to use allowed her to push forward and really get what she wanted without fighting to achieve the gentle light of morning. All of the students were successful in getting the morning light in their work.

Tomorrow, they'll be doing sunsets and noon lighting. I'll share more of their work with you then, if you like. I'm so pleased with the way the workshop is unfolding for these students. Then there are my demonstration paintings coming, too...

There's still room in the May Florida workshop (Georgia is full), and the September workshop in beautiful Maine. Color Boot Camps for FIVE FULL DAYS!

You can see my entire blog HERE.

My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE (except for the June Riverside workshop).

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

Apr 3 - First Day of Color Boot Camp

Today ended the first full day of the April Color Boot Camp here at Two Trees Studio. I am pleasantly tired tonight, yet smiling as I do when I know the students had a valuable day behind them. I demonstrated how to make a fairly good old painting I had much better, by the knowledge of the Color System I'm teaching. I took this 24 x 36 acrylic that I painted back in 1998, and with glazes and some enhancement of areas, transformed it from a ho-hum nice painting to a definite morning light piece. I'd painted it in 1998 during the month after my dad died as a series of pathway paintings, coming to grips with losing a loved one, and the path we are all on during this stay on earth.

In the Color System, morning light is suffused with yellow (mostly) and shadows take on some characteristics of the receding night sky. It was fun to change the areas of sunlight and shadow to reflect this, and yet to hold to the integrity of the original painting.

Here's the old version for you to see what the original painting looked like before the demonstration of how to fix a canvas.

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

Mar 28 - Whitewater Preserve Evening

The second plein air painting for the show coming up on April 2 at Whitewater Preserve off of I-10 for your pleasure! This is a 24 by 12 acrylic, and I painted it SO fast.... Couldn't take any pictures of it in process, as the light changed so rapidly on that rock face on the right. I got that part in first, as I knew that as the light faded, the sun would leave those rocks. And it DID. So I painted this one mostly in the Cool Boxes of the Color System, using traditional acrylics, with just a few accents of warm on the water and wet rocks.

Doing the water while listening to the burbling ripples was such a joy. I was parked near the concrete creek crossing where many people pull off and enjoy the water, but at this time of evening, I was only worried about black bears. Sparky would have warned me, though. In this part of the pass area near Banning, the wildlife come down to drink, and the evening light takes on a special atmosphere. I love to capture it--(the light, not the bears!)

After painting the first oil, I went to leave, and they'd closed the gates on me while I was inside the Preserve! Fortunately, they didn't lock them, so I could come to this location and whip out the acrylics. Fun to do two paintings in two media on one afternoon. Yes, I do paint fast....

The April workshop is fast approaching, and I do have one spot available for anyone interested in a quick three days of INTENSE Color Boot Camp. Let me know... although nine is a good number, too.

Here's Sparky at my set up for the first Whitewater painting...he just woke up and is arching his back in a stretch--thus the strange pose. I hope you enjoy seeing the places "for real" that I paint?

You can see my entire blog HERE.

My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.

Color System information can be found HERE.

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