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 Updated 2/28/08
Newest Paintings by Elin Pendleton, AAEA, WAOW, EAG
Still fresh from the easel, you have the first opportunity to see the diversity and depth of the paintings I produce. Without framing costs, these original works are both affordable and save on shipping. After showing for approximately eight weeks on this page, the unsold paintings are moved to their subject pages. If you'd like to enjoy the sold work, arranged by subject, please click here. Also, many smaller canvases are to be found listed on my Daily Paintings site and also sold through my ebay store. This page, beginning in 2007, will only show larger works.
February 2008
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I was so enthralled by the changing light of the evening of the same day, that I grabbed my gear and headed back to the Citrus Park toward dusk to capture the light of what turned out to be a spectacular moment in time.
Here is the result of an extremely fast-changing lighting situation on a 9 x 12 canvas. Done in acrylics, I wanted to capture that essence of evening sky and distance, and still have light on the palms and the tops of the orange trees. Like the demonstration for the Quick Draw, this one was built up in layers. The light was changing so fast, though, I had no time to do "in progress" images. By the time I finished up, it was dark, and I had to walk down through the groves back to my car needing a flash light!
This painting is SO Southern California in January! And I nailed the light....I'm so pleased with it. For sale for $300, just contact me to bring a memory of that evening light on the San Gabriels to your collection.
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On location once again, in this wonderfully breezy Southern California day. At the Citrus Heritage Park in Riverside, I did this 12 x 12 acrylic on gallery wrap (1.5" deep) canvas. I did it as a lesson painting for February on the Daily Paintings site, but here itis completed! Being shown in the Founder's Show for the Corona Art Association this month.
The other news is that the book for which I did the cover is now available on Amazon.com! Here's a tiny URL for it, and you can see the cover. I already pre-ordered my copy!
http://tinyurl.com/3655g8
And here's an image of the cover! Yup, that's my painting!
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January 2008
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One hour and twenty minutes... finished and framed.
I spent the last ten minutes both studying the stage of the painting from yesterday's blog, and also wanting to place more emphasis on that steeple. So I went over the sky again with another layer, blending the brushworks away with a glaze, and then highlighting the area around the steeple with lighter values of that lemon yellow tinted sky (all Color Boot Campers know what I mean when I say Lemon Yellow in morning skies!)
The last act was to put in one of the lamp posts that are so characteristic of Riverside, on the left. No doubt where this scene is with that unique lamp post!
So in sharing the ten minute stages of a plein air quick draw, I hope that I've been able to show how one of my paintings develop to a finished stage. I look at all of the earlier ones and say, "Yipes! Ugggg-LEEs!!" But not out loud. It is just a fact that paintings in process have to go through ugly stages to get to a finished state. And in a nutshell, the finished state is focusing the viewer's eye on those areas where we want interest, and downplaying those areas where interest is much lower on the priority list.
Yes, I know some artists go the mile in detail and focus, but I like to think my painting style is more the way the human eye sees--what is of interest to us is where our eyes focus and thus we get detail at that area. The rest of the scene/critter/person is then less detailed.
No signature, a requirement for these juried events (makes it fair to the judge), and here's the nicest reward a painter can receive--honors for honest effort! Thanks for sharing the journey with me. The painting is now hanging in the Riverside Art Museum, and the opening for that show is February 7.
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At the beginning of this last week, we began painting at the Riverside Art Museum and on Mission Avenue.
I did this little 5 x 7 oil of the museum sign as an exercise in back lighting. It was windy, so I didn't spend too much time on it--only about 30 minutes.
The great news was that today, the "Quick Draw" competition in front of the Library ended with me taking first place with my "Morning Light on Mission Avenue" painting. It's a 14 x 11 acrylic on board. I set the timer while I painted it in ten minute increments, so I could take in-process photos. I'll share those with you in the days to come. Here's an image of me with the ribbon... total painting time, one hour and 45 minutes from start to finish. I'm glad I stopped to take the "in process" pictures, so I can share what went on during its creation. I had "hat hair" by then... ah well. The PAAR people sure put on a great show!
Now to think about the upcoming workshops and to enjoy the finished patio adjoining the studio. On February 6, the Plein Air Artists of Riverside will be coming here to paint the green hills and have a pot luck dinner. I'm looking forward to that, too!
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Had to take a break from the dog painting to join the other members of PAAR (Plein Air Painters of Riverside) in their week-long paint out of the beautiful city.
Here's my first work, a 12 x 16 oil of "Las Campanas", the restaurant at the Mission Inn (John, you didn't think I'd forget, did you?) The Mission Inn is a landmark block-large hotel in the downtown area. People were coming and going, valet parking right where I set up. I learned after the fact that they frowned on painters "cluttering up" their drive way. Ha! Better to ask forgiveness than permission.... no one requested for me to move, so I just painted to my heart's content.
If you look at the composition of this painting, you'll note the asymmetrical balance, the arched entry on the left balanced by the seating area on the right. Teh verticals of the palm trunks and bamboo are also counter-balanced by the horizontals of the hedge, the arch and the gentler curves of the walkway and curb. This was done with 80% cool colors, with only the lit areas of the bench and podium going to the warm side. No signature, as it may make it into the jurying portion. If I sell it first (for $300), then I'll sign it.
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Here is the finished painting, photographed digitally and then sent off for slide duplication--this one is going into the Kansas City "Art Show at the Dog Show" competition under the oils category.
In finishing this one up, you can see I didn't do all that much more major painting, just refined and detailed out the legs, pats and heads of the two dogs. I paid special attention to the contrast areas on the tails and the gently varying values on the white areas of the right pup ("Sparky").
The added color of the red-violet collar puts the finishing touch of a discord for this analogous color scheme. In Hal Reed's Color Wheel, he shows that there needs to be a dominant hue of the one compliment (in this case the orange) and a much smaller physical area of the partnering complement (in this case, the blues). Hal Reed's Analogous Color Wheel helped me get the correct proportion of hues when I needed it, making my work more pleasing to the eye. Although not part of the Color System I use now, it is useful to have one of these while planning your paintings.
This painting is currently at the art show at the dog show in Kansas City. |
December 2007
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A marathon couple of days in the studio this week... two commissions to finish up, and this is the first. The second is done, too, but I'm waiting for feedback from the folks before posting it.
This is the finished 24 x 18 inch acrylic portrait of "Robi" and I am going to quote for you some of the writings that her former owner wrote:
This pup was singularly responsible for bringing my dad and I back together. ...
In her last year she had moved with my dad to Alaska, my dad's permanent residence. In August, my dad was entertaining some company that wanted to do a lot of salmon fishing. On a scouting expedition, my dad let both dogs out on the side of a country road. Both dogs have been around their fare share of traffic and cars--they are traffic safe. It was one of those fluke things where Robi just got out on the wrong side at the wrong time and a car just happened to be right there, coming out of a blind turn. The car hit her without having time to break. My dad was just crushed. He performed CPR on her for 10 minutes, but to no avail--she passed away quickly from massive internal injuries. (End of quote)
I'm sure you can see why I had to paint Robi. Stories like this one make my painting journey such a poignant one. The painting is now in the hands of Summer and Shawn, and it will travel north to Alaska next week, as a present to his dad. Here's a photograph of the painting when they picked it up today. Yes, these two also shoe my horse! |
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I LOVE last-minute commissions! I am so pleased that I can deliver a painting in a week or less when other artists take months. It has been especially wonderful this year, as my contact list and word of mouth has brought some wonderful folks to my email "door" with requests for paintings for gift giving.
Here is an example of the one I just shipped--a 16 x 20 acrylic of a place that is so very special to the person receiving the present--his favorite place for camping and in the high country with that distinct peak. His wife sent me images, and I pulled the view together (and you know how much I love to paint water!). She was very pleased, and so am I.
And two paintings as last minute Christmas gifts were sold from my ebay store, one shipped to arrive Tuesday, and another to be hand delivered by me this weekend.
So my holidays are busy and full of the real pleasure of bringing visual joy to so many people, while doing what I love, (and must do) to be who I am.
To all my collectors and friends, I wish you a very safe and loving holiday season filled with your most treasured wishes. For me, it will be a quiet season, reflecting on all the wonderful friends I have made through my artwork. Well, as quiet as it can be with two new puppies!
Here's an image of them when it truly IS quiet....
Congratulations to returning collector Frank Barrese of Temecula, California, on his purchase of "Mission Inn Arch" and new collectors Ronny Klemm of East Northport, New York ("Bored" --English warmblood) and Vicki Harris of Lake Forest, California, ("His Favorite View") for their purchases. |
| Many smaller daily paintings that don't appear on my Recent Work pages can be viewed here. |
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