July 7- Oh, from the darkly hallows...

Come with me to the Way-Back Machine, and I'll show you a work from the early 1980s. It's a 24 x 30 oil, done from material I took at the Bishop Mule Days, and this was before I was doing acrylics, and it shows you all where I was at the time. Nothing wrong with looking back over old work--it can show you where you were on your painting journey, and revisiting these elder stepping stones can teach in unusual ways.
For example, here I see I had no understanding of how color behaves in light and shadow. And I did the usual mistake of making things lighter by adding white to them, creating a chalking overview. I didn't know how to make things recede into space yet, but I sure was in love with blue shadows! I also hadn't figured out how to make my brush marks convey space. OK, enough bashing. It is well drawn.

An interesting side note, look at the signature. It is the earliest version of my trademark "Elin", and includes my maiden name!

You can see the entire blog here.

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

July 6 - Drawings for the Three Dog Commission

I've now returned to working on the three-dog commission of the wonderfully gentle natures of these canines. More details and a couple more possibilities off my pencil tonight. When I do commissions like this, it is my utmost desire to capture the nature of the animal, and a composite of their expressions, without losing the specific "look" of the dog. There is no substitute for good reference images to reach that goal, and I have some good ones. But to make a composition with three dogs, and none of the reference images are consistent in lighting or perspective, makes for quite a challenge. I'm ready for it, though, as the acrylic DVD winds down--I need a new puzzle!!
On another note, Alberto has been busy putting over one hundred of my paintings into my ebay store where it is easy to search for a painting by category or title.

Congratulations to Charlotte McDavid of Birmingham, Alabama, on the addition of "Kentucky River" to her collection of "Elin" paintings!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

July 5 - Shelf Life, One of Four Fabricritters

The last of the Fabricritters for your pleasure and enjoyment, this one with the canning jars (just fabric collaged onto the canvas and then painted to LOOK like glass jars!!) and the box of Oat Bran reminding us to be sure to have enough fiber in our diets. I think with all our cat hair from Pesto and Bats, we get enough!

I've attached a close-up of the cat and one jar to show you how it all blends together into a painting. I especially like how "glassy" the fabric swatches are in this smaller detail view. Enjoy!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

July 4 - Calicoal, the First Fabricritter (Acrylic collage!)

After yesterday's carrousel horse, I received this informative email from one of East Coast friends that I thought you'd enjoy: "Oddly enough, not beyond belief and fitting to my propensity for useless detail, I know a great deal about the designing and construction of the early carousels. When I was taking care of one of the Smithsonian off site storage facilities, I had the complete carousel animal collection in one of my bays. Most of them were in open storage crates and available to me to me in making some detail drawings. A lot of the carousels were built in Philadelphia because of the furniture industry. Carousel animals were carved from the furniture off cuts, "chunks" as they were known in the trade. The "chunks" were glued and literally spiked together. The most elaborately carved horse on any carousel was known as the "lead' or "king" horse. The outside horses were the largest and the fanciest carved. Most of the carvers came from Europe with only the clothes on their back and a satchel of tools. It was a common practice that the apprentices carved the animal bodies and the heads were carved by masters. As a side line, a lot of church statuary were carved by these men."

So to follow up on the continuing saga of the Fabricritters, here is the largest of the four pieces, never shown before. This measures 30 x 40 inches, and is called "Calicoal" I hope you enjoy this one! It was the first that I created, and as it seems to be of interest to many of you who have your hands in quilting and other fabric arts, somewhat fitting. Here's a closeup of the head, where you can see the paint work, and then an image of the head and shoulder, showing the transition to the fabric. Acrylics are wonderful for applying with collage materials.


I've considered selling these four pieces... (oh, you haven't seen the fourth one! Well, that's tomorrow.) But whoever whould buy them, well it will take a very special person, is all.

You can see the entire blog here.

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

July 3 - Fabricritter Carrousel Horse, 36 x 24

This painting is one of the Fabricritter series I did several years ago, along with Lila-cat and Shelf Life, another of the four. This was the last one, and I really pulled out the stops on it. Almost 90% of the canvas is made up of applied fabric swatches, over which I glazed acrylic color and medium to seal the swatches down. This is especially evident in the background.

The painting is a stretched canvas, and the flexibility of the fabric matches the canvas, plus the medium and paint are also flexible. Painting details such as the eye was just so much "eye candy!"

In this closeup of the head, you can see the fabric pieces that make up the background as well as the detail pieces on the bridle. What is really fascinating, though, is this detail of the mane just behind the ears... take a look at how the texture of the white calico cloth mimics the variations in a horse's mane coloration! I painted darker swatches of color over the fabric to make it look more like mane, using Payne's gray and other variations on the background colors. I'd love to do some more of these, but what do you call 'em? Paintings, assemblages, or craft? Dilemma!



You can see the entire blog here.

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

July 2 - Finished the Details, "The Quest" Acrylic

Sometimes there are just those few brush strokes that need to be added to make a good painting into something really special. I spent about an hour today on "The Quest", the advanced/intermediate lesson painting in the Acrylics Fast and Loose DVD, and those few brush strokes take that painting to a new level. If you'll compare this one with the one on the blog from a few days ago, you just might notice a wee tad difference.
Today I also worked on the inside front cover ad I submit to Horses in Art magazine. I do these in Photoshop, and wanted especially to include this painting. Double motivation!

Now, those of you with a pocket full of design, take a look at the ad and see if you can spot the underlying structure of the arrow point that goes through all three paintings. Intentionally unifies the whole page... and that cover for the new DVD "just happens" to be bright red....

Happy almost Fourth to our US contingent!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

July 1 - Lila-cat, Acrylic Fabric Collage, 18 x 24

I'm still working on the acrylic DVD, and coming to the part where I show some "slides" of some of my work. This "Fabricritter" called "Lila-cat" came to light as one example of what the possibilities are for using a collage-type application with pieces of upholstery fabric. The cat has pieces of fabric throughout the body, painted and glazed over with acrylic colors and gel mediums. The flowers in the whiskey barrel are all fabric, with only a few embellishments! And there are pieces of fabric creating the background and wall, too. 18 x 24 inches
Robert Genn in his bi-weekly email touts acrylics on June 28. He doesn't have it posted on his web site yet, but the quote I like came from the second paragraph: "Acrylic facilitates experimentation and gives new ability to process ideas. Faster and fresher, the journey becomes less arduous--and in many ways, more fun." I sure agree with that!

Congratulations to new collector Betty Dawson of Dallas, Texas, on her purchase of "Rose" from my ebay store.

You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 30 - Editing and Some News

I have spent about 16 hours editing the DVD today. This is the grunt work--details about scene changes, putting the clips in order and lining them up for the changes between the palette and the canvas, without compromising the audio. Fun, but I get tired of listening to myself! There are some funny outtakes and the plein air footage came out crackerjack!

The other news is that I have placed almost all of the horse paintings on ebay, in my "store". If you click here, you'll go directly there, and perhaps see some artwork that has been hidden deeply on the other web site to add to your collection. If you go there on your own, just search on my name. Alberto has been working to bring all the web site's artwork to the ebay store.

The image you see today is an acrylic I did that never made it to the web site--it sold as I was finishing it, at the Cattlemen's Western Art Show in Paso Robles. It was a 12 x 12. I think it was a good one because the horse, rider and pack horse are secondary focal points behind the waterfalls.

You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 29 - Plein Air with Acrylics!

The final footage of the Acrylic Painting Lessons DVD was finished up this morning when I went on location with Vincent van Goat carrying the supplies up into the brush behind the studio. The end result is this 6 x 8 acrylic view of the riparian habitat where UCR students spend many hours researching. I shared how I work with acrylic paints when outdoors and on location with the camera running. It sure was a good trial--the weather was reaching up to the 90s, and dry winds buffeted the easel. The pill boxes of paint did just fine, and Vincent's goat bell clanged throughout as he munched the vegetation.

And here's my cameraman Alberto, bearing with me in the bright light and heat to capture the footage on location today. What a great help! That little Sony digital camera has sure earned its keep, too!
You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 28 - Not exactly a painting....but art related!

You get to see it first, the layout of the new cover for the Acrylic DVD! I haven't decided which of the three paintings will be featured on the cover, but right now these two newer ones hold sway. I hope you enjoy it! Now back to editing so I can have the master finished and begin taking orders. Whew. Long hours in the "saddle" of digital editing! More last minute filming tomorrow morning, and then... (crosses fingers)... the master will be done!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 27 - A New Commission Begins, Going to the Dogs

A new commission is in my hands, a large, 30 x 40 inch oil of three dogs, Maggie, Buddy and Sydney, positioned in a landscape. The owner writes: " I think I want something between realistic and impressionistic. I know I want a light and bright painting. I think the mountains need to be somewhat smoky with a beautiful bright blue sky. I would like to feel pulled into the far scene as if it is a window to an incredibly peaceful place. I would like the season to be summer with the eye first drawn to my dogs in the forward scene, and then led to the long scene behind it. Will you be able to show me a sketch as you plan the painting?
My living room walls are a medium shade of gold. My furniture has shades of brown and sage green, anchored by a beautiful oriental rug of many colors. I also have accents of brick red and gold."

And so the communication begins. All the details about price and projected timeline are in place, and now the sketching for structure in the overall design of the painting comes out. Today you see the first rough idea...I can work on this slowly while I work hard on the final digital editing!

I have been reminded that the duplication of my "Two Trees" painting is not a print, but a reproduction, and I stand corrected. It is true, a print is an artform (Emile Nolde is pointing a finger at me! A good site for the German printmakers, by the way is here). Alberto named the Epson 4000 "Wilma", and is tenderly coercing her into making beautiful repros for me. She keeps humming along, making the 50 reproductions of the painting, and I'm already planning more work for Wilma with the "Lesson Cat" from the JAVMA Journal's April cover.

And the votes for yesterday's painting came in equally for the first and second one (the greenish one) and the gray one coming in third. The high contrast one fell a distant fourth. Thanks for your feedback!

You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 26 - Found Another Acrylic, and had some fun with it...

While working on inventorying my collection, Alberto discovered one that has not been on the web site, and whick I've used over the past couple years to experiment using those handmade papers. Here it is, a 24 x 30 of draft horses in backlighting. The handmade papers create the overall texture on this one, and in this version it is decent, if not ground shaking.

Now I've taken it into Photoshop and done some color management, seeing what it looks like with some color shifts. In this version, I played down the color intensities, and shifted the colors over to the grayer side. Do you like this one better?

Then I shifted it over to the greener side, which makes more of a summer morning out of it. I kept the sky colors intact for the most part. Maybe you prefer these colors?

But that was not the finish. I decided that I needed more drama and contrast, so again I Photoshopped the image and punched it up as another experiment. Maybe this one appeals to the majority? In any event, Photoshop or its equivalent can allow you as it does me, to experiment and see what possible directions to go in with a work in progress!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 25 - The Quest, Acrylic DVD painting Finished!

Yippee!!! This 16 x 20 canvas is where I can call it finished--I especially love the way the values point out the light on this one. The filming production on this phase is done, and now I have two short segments to film tomorrow, and then stitch all the clips together into the Acrylic DVD (Final Cut Pro)! Wow! I'm actually going to meet my deadline to have it ready for shipment the first week in July!

I'm just pleased as punch at how this one turned out, especially since I combined three references to make the composition. Being an artist is so much fun!

On another note, Alberto's been working hard updating my ebay store, adding some of the horse paintings! I'm fortunate that he knows computers and can take some of the work off my shoulders so I can finish this project. He begins his master's program this fall, but says he'll still work for me when I need it. I appreciate what he is doing for me. Today we also got the Epson 4000 up and running, because I have a print run of my painting "Two Trees" for a fundraiser for the group in Ventura County fighting to preserve the hillsides in their natural state. I support projects like this when I can.

And having the Epson on line again, I can make prints of the cat painting "Lesson Cat" that was on the April issue of the Journal of American Veterinary Medicine for those folks who wanted a print of that one. Busy busy!!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 24 - Uncle Willy for the Acrylic Lessons DVD

Ho ho ho! Uncle Willy comes to town! Here he is, monacle and moustache, and just a little 8 x 10 canvas, showing the variances of using acrylics as a collage/assemblage medium! I always have such fun when I pull out the stops to create thees silly, whimsical characters with acrylics. Full of yarn, handmade paper, feathers and gold pseudo leaf, this is just a hoot to create! Acrylics are SO versatile!

Yesterday several of you commented about the possibility of having....um... hemp leaves! in the handmade paper. Well, there's a joke for you, I guess Uncle Willy is a hippy! Those layers are no longer visible in this image. I worked some more on him, so he has a different look now, and will be featured in the DVD on Acrylic Painting that is falling off my brushes!
You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 23 - Acrylic Collage, for the DVD

This is WAY too much fun! Doing the final footage for the Acrylic DVD, and I'm painting another in the "Aunt Pru" series--acrylic collage gone awry! This is the beginning stage of one such creation, and it is SUCH fun to create by applying objects to canvas/board with acrylics. They are SO right for assemblage creating! This one might be called "Uncle Willie" when I'm done!


And the aikido seminar in Santa Barbara is past now, but I took over 200 photographs of the morning session, and attach one for your enjoyment. The camera worked its magic, having the focal point in focus, but the natural spirals and curves of the "art" of aikido very much in evidence. One of the reasons I find it so pleasing is the black/white/gray and no dominant colors--every color in these places is muted, and the calmness of the practice area is like a salve for the mind. There are no kicks or blocks in aikido--it is the art of blending. Now I'm home and can blend back into my DVD editing, caring for the goats, and giving thanks for living this life. Thanks for listening.
You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 22 - Aikido in Santa Barbara

I'm so happy I brought my watercolors in a quick dash for the camper as we left for Santa Barbara! The seminar with Seventh Dan Donovan Waite was absolutely exhausting in both mind and body! But what an opportunity to study the fluid movements of this master of aikido!

So what could I do but paint the effects of seeing the flow and energy in the training? Here is a watercolor, about 7 x 5 inches, of two partners in motion, one receiving the art and doing a high fall, and the one giving the art in a balanced, centered position.

Tomorrow we go back for another day--I hope I will have the physical stamina to learn and offer good partnerships. Then it will be back home to digital editing on the Acrylic DVD!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 21 - Almost Finished, Acrylic DVD Lesson Painting

NoW it is starting to hum! I've spent another 40 minutes of painting (soon to be edited down to the essential delivery mode in the DVD), and adding the lights on the focal areas really helps this painting along. Plus, I've added not only the waterfalls, but the greens of the trees along the shoreline. The painting has a bit too much blue at the top--due to my lights/camera interplay. But you can see that this one is progressing well, with a lot of textural nuance!

Ah, off to Santa Barbara tomorrow, to study with an aikido master, Donovan Waite. I am sure I'll learn a great deal, and nothing beats the ocean in summer and that incredibly romantic Santa Barbara! I will still post a daily painting, just will have a heck of a time figuring out how to do it!
However, you just KNOW my paints are going along with me!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 20 - Next Level in the Advanced Acrylic Lesson

Now this is where the painting truly "goes into the Uglies"! Every painting I have ever done goes into this stage before I add what it takes to pull it out the other side. At this stage, the painting is absolutely FULL of texture with the many layers covering that ol' white canvas. I know that these layers will add much to the finished painting, creating subtle variations that will delight the eye.

That the painting is so bland at this point is similar to an empty house, with newly painted and wallpapered walls. This is the backdrop for the furniture (horse, man and mules) that is coming!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 19 - Acrylic DVD lesson painting, second pass

This is the second layer of color that I've put on this 16 x 20 canvas, demonstrating the importance of layering in acrylics to build texture and hold to a good design. The areas where the horse/mules and waterfalls will go still has the least amount of paint, but look at all the lucious jewel tones that are in the lower part of the painting! This will be the water pool area.

I'm just about ready to start dab-dab-dabbing with my trusty not-so-dusty sponge to make the texture patterns in the upper area that will eventually transmogrify into trees! Such fun, cameras rolling, editing going on--never a dull moment!. Tomorow, however, I am riding, and going to take my camera in case I come across that coyote again.


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 18 - The Acrylic DVD Painting LESSON!!

I'm deep into the final editing on the Acrylic DVD, and this painting is the one I'm doing for the Intermediate/Advanced section of the lessons. It is using the Color System, with some explanation, and will incorporate elements of water, horses and landscape. I'm really enjoying this!! The image below is the first pass to "get rid of the white"--sure looks like a mess at this point!

I'll post more images later today (running a tad behind on yesterday's post, but this is so exciting, I just had to make sure the presentation of it was done on a rested mind.



You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 17 - Sketchy Scratchy Kitty

Sometimes cats have "moments'. This is a calico (loosely taken from my own Pesto Kitty) that his having one of those don't-mess-with-me-I'm-busy moments. What is interesting about this smallish 5 x 8 acrylic on watercolor paper, is that it showcases the versatility of this medium, even as we see it handled somewhere between oils and watercolor in this fashion. I did this one for the slide show in the DVD on acrylic painting, so it will go on forever even after it sells.

I went for a ride this evening on Raindance, heading up on a horse trail to the north from our place. Out in the field about 40 feet from me was a coyote--so Rainey and I decided to see where it would go. Keeping about 50 feet behind it, we followed the coyote as it trotted up over some terrain that might lend itself to another trail! We lost it when the going got rough, and the barranca dropoffs were over ten feet. Time to get Vincent out with my tools and go for a hike and start a new trail! ... but first to finish the DVD editing!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 16 - Wanna Go There Now!

Well, quite a difference from yesterday's bland painting, don't you think?

I'm pleased with it, as it seems more welcoming. I warmed up the closer sunlit foliage, made the sky more interesting and balanced, and highlighted the ocean with more of that tourquoise yummy water color that one sees in special places on the globe with warm climates and tropical breezes!

I think the only thing that would make it truly finished would be to add a couple of chairs and a small table on the deck... waiting for us to come and sit down, talk about painting, and enjoy the view! Can you get away?


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 15 - An Oldie But Goodie, Going to get "Partied Up"

Many years ago (at least eleven) I did this 36 x 30 oil as a commission for the Las Vegas "Dream House" decorator's challenge through my friend and gallery owner Randy Holland. It was fun to do these big canvases (there were four), and I still have two of them. I am bringing this one to you as both a lesson painting, and to share with you some of my "checkered past".

Although I was happy with it at the time of its creation, I now know more, and am ready to accept the challenge of bringing it up to the artistic standard I hold today. Unless someone rescues it at a $400 price tag, I'm going to spend some time tomorrow painting out portions of it to present to you as tomorrow's daily. (Then the price will be higher!) I have been asked to share some larger canvases with you, and this seems like a good place for starting.

So many joyful things on my plate right now....just finished sending off the entries for the Harness Tracks of America auction, and working diligently on the editing of the Acrylic DVD. I have ALL the digital footage from the original tapes on four separate external hard drives, and am so pleased that the additional footage dovetails right into the lesson format I want to present to you! I will announce pre-orders as soon as the master DVD is in the hands of my duplication service. You have been SO patient!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 14 - An Old One, With some Positive Attributes

Every once in a while, I do demonstrations for art groups, and this painting is a result of such a painting event from many years ago. It is an oil, 16 x 20 inches, and is not on the web sites. It has some compositional flaws in the design that I have never fixed, and so it doesn't get exhibited. Can you tell where the strengths and weaknesses of this painting lie? Before you get too deep into the "tell Elin the bad news" mode, look at this image below. It is a detail of the people in the painting. I show this to you because to me, it is the essence of capturing the human figure with good brush work. The gesture is in place, the story is told, and the communication is strong. Tear apart the rest of the painting, but please appreciate this part of the work for the positive message it conveys!

I'm still working on the DVD for the acrylics, and will continue to share other existing paintings until the editing is finished.

Congratulations to returning collectors Frank Barrese from Temecula on their purchase of "Sunflowers"--the painting that I did while Betty Billups was here.


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 13 - Acrylics and Alberto

Back with the acrylics, and this is a 5 x 5 study from some photographs I'd taken several years ago at the Wildlife Way Station. I've been working on the acrylic video, and so I've put up the oils for a few days. This little gem will appear in my ebay store in a few days, along with more of my art.

Now, I know you've asked me to share a photograph of the fellow who is working for me, and it is with a great deal of pleasure that I captured a photo of Alberto, standing in the studio about ready to head back to the computer. He is the most charming fellow, delightfully shy and yet not, and so highly paintable! However, he was difficult as a subject to photograph, as he is constantly busy. (I'll try to get a closer image when he isn't expecting it. Then you can tell him he's cute!)




You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 12 - Acrylic 24 x 30 "Snow Feed"

I thought you'd enjoy an acrylic painting (24 x 30) that I did some time ago--long sold, and yet I still love it.
I'm prepping my time for the last bit of digital cinematography I need for the Acrylic Painting DVD, and these images are coming out for that purpose. Called "Snow Feed", this is an example of how beautifully well acrylics handle layering to create atmosphere. As with all my work, if I were to do it again today (hey, there's an idea!), I would probably do it a bit differently!
Oh, yes, you also wanted to see the young doeling. Here's a couple pics of her, one in the feeder (Mom's looking on), and one showing her lovely markings, called "sundgau". We've named her "Uke" a Japanese word for the person who "gives the art" in aikido.



You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 11 - Back in the Routine? Nope!

I decided to finish up a couple of paintings that were started earlier--one is the book cover with the phoenix on it, and I may update that with a daylight photographed image to show the nuances. The other is the one started on location in Kentucky, and is the hillside with all of the texture in the greens. Although the mark-making at this point is subtle, the differences are pronounced in where I want your eye to go. This 16 x 12 oil now has the stronger message I wanted to convey about the light and the atmosphere as I looked across the valley.

On another note, I brought home Heather doe goat and her adorable week-old daughter. Tomorrow I will take pictures! We'll be back in goat milk, and with the chickens that came along, hopefully fresh eggs for quiche and breakfast! I love the sound of a rooster--as long as he isn't under our bedroom! Now, since I know they get up a whole lot sooner than I do, I'm off to get some much-needed shut-eye!

You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 10 - Last of the Kentucky Images

OK, not the last of the last, but the last finished one I did while there. This is a 12 x 9 oil of Grimes Mill which is now the headquarters of the Iroquois Hunt Club, and the third painting I did on location that afternoon which seems already so long ago. I'm glad I had done these, as it has allowed me to spend some time here working on the goat pen and the chicken run--tomorrow I pick up my milk goat and her daughter (yet unnamed), and a flock of chickens from my friend and goat lady Sue. Of COURSE I'll post pictures!

So, what can I tell you about the process and procedure on this one? I can say that it didn't LOOK like this, in that there were shadows on the sunny side that were not very attractive, so I made my own! I like the essential horse-head hitching post and chain in the lower left, and that the renovation kept the millstones, which are in the front lawn filled now with flowers.

Tomorrow I'll finish the 16 x 12 landscape I started as a lesson painting, and present that to you finished. Thanks for joining me on this journey! Of course, all the paintings you have seen are for sale, but I'm working behind the scenes with my assistant (Alberto) to put them all in my ebay store. I'll send out news what that is all ready to go!.
You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 9 - Back in California, and memories of Kentucky in Oils

Back home again, into the hot tub, two glasses of wine later, and I'm about ready to slide into the sheets for a good night's rest! Although I'm posting it at 8:45 pm, my head thinks it's 11:45!! The flights were uneventful, but it was hard to say goodbye to Melissa and Kentucky--but who's complaining with the reception awaiting here? We went over to the Red Mile and did some needed reference photography of the harness horse training and workouts before she took me to the airport.

Today's painting is one that I did on location at the Iroquois Hunt Club creek a few days ago, and is the second of three I did that afternoon. This one, a five by seven oil, as compared with the first, shows how important it is to have the sense of place "in place" before beginning painting. It is much better in design and value than the first, more hurried one of yesterday. It really says moving water and stream to me.

Tomorrow the routine begins again, with some stress, yet I know I am happy to be home, refreshed, loving my hubby, so will say "nighty nite" to all of you for yet another day. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your artistic journey!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 8 - Leaving KY, Creek Study, 5 x 7 Oil

How sad I am that this is my last night in Kentucky--yet how happy I will be to see and enjoy all that awaits me upon my return to California tomorrow! I share with you one of the two quick studies I did a couple days ago while Painting with Kathy Lambert from Florida. This is the warm up one, while I was still establishing a "sense of place" in my mind. It is of the creek, still swollen from the recent rains, behind the Iroquois Hunt Club.

Interesting that I have found just how important it is to take the time to get a "sense of place" before beginning a plein air painting. Without it, one's work looks false and full of effort. I'm sure you'll see that tomorrow's 5 x 7, which was painted immediately following this one, is MUCH more evocative of the creek and its gift of being in front of me. I will miss the rushing and trickling water, but my pond is working well at home now, and I can hardy wait to see it.

That sense of place comes when I wait in an area for 30 to 45 minutes before begining painting. I can set up, but tend to wait until I have allowed the site to sort out in my head, making the choice of what to paint an easy one. The place tells me. So when you head out the door to paint--don't be in such a hurry to set up and get something done. Sometimes the best learning time is BEFORE you lift your brushes, when you rest quietly and allow the place to speak its special magic to you!

I went for my last ride around the farm today with Melissa, on Belle who was again a joy to ride, and we circled by these round bales. I will so miss the greens and yellows of this area!

You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 7 - Getting There, But Not Quite, and Ashford Stud

It is almost done, and if you'll again compare this painting with yesterday's in process, you'll see I have don a tremendous amount to alter and change those large laid-in shapes! It isn't finished yet, but at this stage I may need to stop so it will be able to travel back home on Saturday. I travel with not-quite-dry oils by sandwiching them between sheets of wax paper, and wrapping the pile of paintings so they don't shift while in transit. I can also "quick dry" some of them by putting them on the dashboard of a closed up car in the sun. At least dry enough to travel.

Today was special in another way, because friend and artist Barbara Livingston picked me up, for a fun day of signtseeing in her old "turf"--she grew up in Versailles. We also had a unique opportunity to visit Ashford Stud, where outstanding horses such as Fusaichi Pegasus, Hennesy and Giant's Causeway are in full breeding season. Amazingly beautiful stallions, we were able to get behind the scenes with an escort by Helen from Ireland, whom Barbara knows. She took us all throughout the farm, seeing horses worth millions of dollars and the extraordinarily beautiful grounds.
Here we are at the main gate of Ashford. If you'd like to see more, please go to there site here.


Also, if you go to the Bluegrass Plein Air site, here, and scroll down a bit, you'll see a photograph of a bunch of plein air painters from our excursion to the Shaker Village site. Fun!


You can see the entire blog here.

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

June 6 - The Lesson Painting, Next Steps

If you'll compare this image with yesterday's blocking in of the value pattern, you'll perhaps see that I have kept with the general values of the areas as I fill in the larger color notes of those areas. Think of a quilt with the swatches of fabric, that create a design of values. I fill in the large "swatches" of color to make my quilt, and then embellish the swatches to make a finished painting. Can you guess which swatch is missing? Yes, the sky! (and the distant fields and the tops of the Queen Anne's Lace, but those are small ones.)

Today I spent a wonderful afternoon with Kathy (omigosh, forgot her last name!) and David her husband, who came up to Lexington from Florida to visit relatives and see the horses, and we got together and painted down at the Iroquois Hunt Club. I managed to do three paintings--two of the creek and one of the Grimes Mill, which is now the Hunt Club headquarters. Great day, not many bugs and great company! Have a safe trip back to Florida!

Tomorrow I meet up with Paint-L member Barbara Livingston, and we'll be seeing the horse farms, and spending some wonderful time together. You bet, more painting!
You can see the entire blog here.

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