Tag Archives: color system

Dec 2 - On Location with the Golden Acrylics

On location with the Plein Air Artists of Riverside last Sunday I quickly painted evening light overlooking a vast view. And, the Golden Open acrylics work! Even in Santana wind conditions, I only had to spritz them a couple times with my water bottle. I was working with all Open except for Ultramarine Blue, that workhorse color, as I am awaiting an order to fill out the Color System.

This is called “Low Water” (Lake Matthews, California) and is a 9 x 12. I put my gear together and strapped it on the motor scooter and drove 20 minutes over to the PAAR member’s house for this vista from their front yard. This scene is only a small piece of the entire view, and yet it spoke to me–loving the diagonal of the finger of the lake and the evening light on the hills and distance. Only in the sunlit areas below the halfway point of the canvas are there any hues from the warm box, and not many of them.

The Golden canvas went into my slip case as it wasn’t dry enough to just toss under the seat as normal acrylics–more like oils in that regard. I tootled on back home, and had a most interesting experience…. on the scooter, I could smell the scent of turkey casseroles and turkey soup on the air–never would have had that with a car! And when I fed the critters, I noticed the wonderful juxtaposition of Jupiter and Venus right off the points of the crescent moon before I came back in the house. This is one of the photographs that Alberto took of the view of city lights and that sky, from our driveway. Life is magic!

You can see my entire blog here.

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Nov 17 - No Fires here, but my colors have changed!

Thanks to all who emailed asking if we were affected by the fires. We’re fine, about 12 miles from the Freeway Complex fire, but it is horrific none the less. I said I would paint this weekend–but the news and fretting about friends kept me glued to the monitor and the web news.

Here’s the start of an 18-inch square acrylic. No, it isn’t smoke and fire, but at this stage I can’t help yet see it. All these layers are done with regular “fast dry” acrylics, starting with the get-rid-of-the-white cadmium red light underneath. The scene is evening sunlit rocks, and will continue the landscape with secondary focal point idea–there will be a solitary ground squirrel on one of the rocks, lower left.

The lay in is done with cools, mostly burnt umber, ultramarine blue and some white, contrasting nicely with the warm under painting, and establishing the large masses. I wish I had a good photograph to share with you of the source, but the image is from memory and a really bad photo of the rocks and brush across the street from our old place. Evening light on the rocks was always a color moment! the distant mountains will tone down with additional layers, however right now they appear to have an evening glow.

Tomorrow I’ll start with those Open Acrylics and share how that goes.

You can see my entire blog here.

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Nov 13 - Open Acrylics and Defining the Color System

I’ve been asked to “explain” my Color System–Hmmmm. That can be a bit of a challenge, since it requires a minimum of three full days by Color Boot Campers to get an inkling of what it is all about. So I’ll pose the question to all of you who have been through a Color Boot Camp, and have seen the Color Flash Cards:

How would you describe the Color System to someone unfamiliar with it?

Please reply in one of two ways: 1) post a comment to the blog, so it will remain there permanently for others to see, or, 2) reply to this message and I’ll put some at the end of this message once it has gone out. I’ll really enjoy your responses, and hope you’ll do #1 and post them as comments to this blog entry on the blog site. If you reply to the email, you’ll only talk to me. I think there’s much to be offered in how you see the Color System. So can you help me out?

Now, here’s an 8 x 6 evening sky painting done with those Golden Open acrylics, using the Color System. It was a out-of-head sketch done at the very end of the workshop at the Art Expo with Suzanne next to me and Catherine across the tables. We had a great time! This one is available for $175 including shipping as a nice example of the sunset skies and also “open” acrylic handling. Paypal is fine. Fun!

I’ll be starting another large canvas over the weekend for you, and again I’m going to use those Open Acrylics. I think I will also video the process, and consider assembling the various footages I have in the digital editing room into a new DVD–called “Acrylics and Oils with the CS”… or something.

You can post a reply to my blog here.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Nov 3 - Two Images of the Same Painting

Before you wig out on me, with two images of the same painting, let me explain. The image that is on the lower left in this post is the earlier version of the later one, which is on the right. I am showing you these two together for a distinct purpose.

As artists, we all go through phases and stages in our paintings. Some easier and some harder. I had a major “AHA” moment with this painting just after getting to the stage that is on the left (the “busy” one). Some of you will say, “Oh but that one is so much more interesting than the other one.” There’s a problem, though. It has gotten ahead of itself. It is TOO SOON for that much edge–that much “eye drivers”. When I brought it back to the easel after photographing it, all those hard-edge shapes came together and started screaming for importance.

Now the scary part for some of you. I took a rag and wiped the canvas in many places, eliminating edges. You see, it is all too easy to get hard edges when we paint. I can always find a hard edge with a brushmark. It really takes some courage to remove them and then replace ONLY those that are necessary for the composition and for driving the viewer’s eye. Softening the edges on major areas now gives me great latitude in placing edges where I need those “eye drivers”. A sharp edge will always drive the eye. Now I can start playing with what’s important and what isn’t, knowing that these earlier layers make a great supporting symphony for the soloist, which comes later.

Will have some news about the upcoming workshops in the next few days…California and Georgia, and FLorida, too! But tomorrow I have jury duty (yeah, my number’s up–appropriate on election day, eh?)

You can see my entire blog here, and please forward to your friends!

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Oct 31 - A Ghoulish Change to an Old One!

I thought you might enjoy the transformation of an old painting into what you see to the right. This was a 16 x 20 oil painting, that I did on location many years ago. The location was in the Temecula Wine Country, about this time of year. Why did I alter it? Because in those “old days”, I was using a limited palette of five colors–Ultramarine Blue, Thalo Green, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red Light, and Cadmium Yellow Light, plus the workhorse Titanium White. Adequate to get the essence of a scene, but no drama nor color singing. I’ve repainted over about 95% of the original surface. (Note: there was no varnish on this painting.)

I’m so pleased with the Color System I’m using now, that painting over an old work allows me to practice what I’ve learned, and also to measure my growth as an artist. I’ve attached the original painting, and I’d like for you to notice the less-than-successful depiction of a backlit subject. It is weak in values. I didn’t work out a good composition–at that time I was going to a place and immediately sitting down and trying to capture it. Now I let a place “speak” to me before I lift my brushes.

If you enjoy this process of changing older work, please let me know.

You can see my entire blog here.

Elin’s Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Oct 22 - 24 x 30 Oil in Morning Light Continues

Now that I have that structure in place, I can continue to cover the canvas with big color shapes to define the values and hues of this morning light scene. I’m painting it with large brushes and enjoying the simplicity that mixing colors using the Color System is giving me. The tree trunks won’t stay that dark, but their inherent value is low, and that provides a wonderful contrast to the light and more pure hues–almost like stained glass!

The horses (yet to come) will be in the shade on the lower left. They’ll be lazing around–I have my source material at hand–two photos of horses in sunlight in a pasture setting, so I’ll have to reduce the values of them to get them to “read right” in the shade of the big trees. That’s for later.

I’m so pleased that many of you have written about the value you find in having these paintings come to you in stages. When I was doing the daily paintings, each day’s painting was completed so swiftly that I didn’t have time to reflect, to plan, or to revise. The work done during that time was “OK”, but I can see a much greater value for me as an artist to have time to let the painting get into me, so it can come out so much differently from the inspiration of being there, or seeing the source material. It truly DOES make a difference! I’m not decrying the earlier work, for each one was a stepping stone to this painting and the ones to come. That is as it should be.

This one is going to have a grand feel to it–it is already there, and revising and refining it will be with the intent of keeping that feel. The painting has to hold up from across the room. That will bring the viewer in closer to see the warts on the horses’ noses, heh heh!

News! TOMORROW MORNING, I ride the Shagya Arabian stallion on an endurance conditioning ride, beginning at 6:30. Yes, I’ll have my new camera… the Canon A590IS, and it is going with me. I’ll be sure to share some images with you, as I’m so looking forward to the adventure.

You can see my entire blog here.

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Oct 21 - Finished, and the start of the next one!

Here’s the painting, about as finished as it is going to get at this point. I made it slightly larger so if you click on it, you’ll see more details.

I didn’t realize how important breaking up the blue areas was until something said to put in the pine bough on the lower right. The balance of the painting is profoundly affected when that branch is not there (use a finger over it to see what I mean).

This canvas is available pre-show season for $1200, and that price will escalate as it is shipped and shown around the country.

Now I’m off on another canvas, this one 24 x 30, and the subject is in line with the recent landscapes with added horses, rather than horses in a supporting landscape.
Here’s the first lay-in, but I got carried away and started blocking in the colors before I remembered to photograph it!

This painting is coming from source material provided by artist Judi Evans, and is from Fay’s Farm in Dawsonville. I’ve walked these pastures and already have a “sense of place” that is part of these new paintings. Tomorrow, more of the canvas covered and more great color.

You can see my entire blog here.

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Oct 20 - 95% finished and Shagya Arabians

I had a heck of a time photographing this one in the studio tonight. I’m due for a new camera, and will be going out to look for a Canon Powershot A590 IS tomorrow. I dropped my earlier model of this handy camera while in Arizona, and I miss it.

So what’s new tonight? Details, all those details. The brushwork is still very visible, and one of the brumby horses (Apache horses) is in–the second and third one will come into the field tomorrow.

I added the broken pattern of light on the central trunk to both make it more interesting, and also to cut that dark shape into interesting values. The trio on the left stay dark in value, but have been connected to one another with the tracery of branches. This also cuts the strength of the blue water over there, too. I had to wait for these layers to dry a bit before adding the tremendous noodly-details of pine boughs and twigs on the right side, too. Compare this stage of the painting with the one from yesterday, and you’ll see the entire canvas has changed. I’ve embellished and made more interesting each area, so the eye has many places to “play”.

Working on these larger canvases is SO satisfying right now. I cannot explain the completeness I have in me when something just goes right, but these three canvases (yes, there are three now–the third 24 x 30 is coming to you later this week–in stages!) are deeply soul satisfying both to create and to enjoy. The hiatus I took from the daily paintings has come full circle now, and my work has gone to a new level of maturity. I’m very pleased with each one of these canvases’ sense of place. At least two of them will be entered in the Women Artists of the West show at the Saks Gallery in Denver this January. And I’ll probably send at least one to the Spring show for the American Academy of Equine Art. I’ll have to consider shipping costs on these bigger canvases, though.

Other news, I went on a four-hour ride using my neighbor’s endurance horse (Arab/Thoroughbred)–we covered about 12 miles but because of the terrain, would translate in endurance miles to 36 miles. Carolyn Hock is a top endurance rider, and I’m fortunate that she’s my neighbor! I’m sore today, but excited to ride with her again. Her training regimen is VERY demanding, and yet I really enjoyed it. I’m hoping she might put me on her Shagya Arabian stallion Reuben next time! Here’s what he looks like (not exactly him, but close):

And I bring my Chiron HERE next weekend! Life is exciting!

Tomorrow this painting will come to you finished, and then you can see the third one begin. I’m already to start on the fourth in the series!

You can see my entire blog here.

Color System information can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Oct 7 - Painting the Aspens in the High Country!


It just doesn’t get much better…. Here on the Apache reservation in the White Mountains, surrounded by incredible clarity and beautiful aspens. This is the first full day of painting, and I took it for all it was worth! Driving up to highway 117 near the turnoff to Sunrise Ski Area, I saw this grove and decided to get right into it.
This is a 5 x 7 oil, the first one of the day, and I really do like the juxtaposition of the areas of color balanced by the calligraphic lines of the limbs and trunks. It fell off my brushes!

The cold last night was well below freezing, and I listened to the Canadian Geese flying. Tonight I go back to sleep under a bazillion stars in a deserted campground and listen again for the elk in the night. Wolves, too!

And of course Sparky and Onslow where lovin’ it too, getting to romp in the field–with a new use for a big paint brush stake holding them just far enough from getting tangled in the setup. Yes, those color boxes did their duty today, and it was so much fun to take what was in front of me and punch it up with the Color System.

You can see my entire blog here.

Information about my Color System and the Color System Flash Cards can be found HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Sep 29 - New Start on An Old Dog and Young Dog, too

Here’s the first pass on an 11 x 14 inch oil, started for a fun goal of painting animals for a month that I started over on Wetcanvas.com. When I start a painting like this, I generally block in the large shapes to define the abstract structure of the work.

In this painting, I want the dynamics of value and the complimentary blue/orange color scheme to hold the reins. So for my first brushwork, I don’t worry about any of the edges, knowing that I can come back later and “fix” and find those that need finding.

These two dogs are my old German Pinscher (now 17) and Sparky, the year-old Teddy Roosevelt Terrier. The title of the painting will be called “Watching Over the Old One”.

On other news, I continue to drop the excess pounds and have maintained muscle mass by riding and hiking the new trails behind our studio/home. Here’s a picture of the newest trail, in evening light, with our place visible in the trees in the upper right corner. I’m at about 1750 feet elevation, and the house is about 300 feet below. I worked until deep twilight making this trail horse-safe. It’s a long way down with a misstep!

You can see my entire blog here.

Can you see why I say that cadmium orange is found in the sunlight in the evening?The Color System Flashcards are available HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Sep 18 - The Plein Air, Backlit Sunset

After doing the first painting in one direction (brought to you on Monday), I swung around and looked the other way and saw this absolutely spectacular color show going on to my right.

Quickly–oh, so quickly!–to capture the sunset-backlit church steeple and those palm fronds shimmering with the glow of the fast-disappearing sun, the brushes got this one in a record 45 minutes. As I put the last marks on the lower darkness, the Museum turned on the rooftop lights and the magic was gone. But the band was playing, friends were be-boppin’ in front of me, and I cleaned my brushes with a whopping grin on my face!

Again take a look below to see how the Color System Flash Cards work–there’s a second image. This tells me whether I’ve “nailed it” with the Color System. Let’s take a look. I’ve superimposed the “Backlit” card next to the finished painting. I don’t have any inherent red objects in this composition, but are you with me that the painting “reads right”?

I’ve just been told that the August workshop in Acadia, Maine is a go–that will be in 2009, last week in September, just as the fall foliage turns! What can be finer than a full-on, Five Day COLOR BOOT CAMP with gorgeous New England autumn leaves? Well, how about Florida the second week of May? Where you stay and paint in the same spot–the Carriage Museum–surrounded by horses and green landscape. Both workshops will be open soon for registration, so if you’ve wanted a Color Boot Camp experience, here’s your chance. For West Coast artists, I’ll be hosting several three-day “Mini Color Boot Camps” at my studio in Riverside.

Thanks for joining me on the journey, and yes, please forward this email to your friends.

A set of the Color System Flashcards can be ordered HERE. Just $12.95 + 3.00 shipping.

You can see the entire blog here.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Sep 15 - Plein Air from the Rooftop Number One

In celebration of Restaurant Week, the Riverside Art Museum hosted a semi-formal “meet the chefs” evening, where for a flat fee, attendees could wander the museum and sample some gourmet courses. I arrived at the third story rooftop for an evening of painting, wine and music with about 400 attendees, and started on this 12 x 16 oil. Riverside has tree-lined streets with high/low palm trees along many boulevards–those fan palms are a trademark of the area.

Evening light, but very early–it was only about 5 pm when I started, and here we have daylight until 7:30 or so. So although this has the Color System working in it, the influencing colors are very minor. A whisper of orange in the palm fronds, and into the side of the building, then going quickly to yellow ochre as the distance increases. Shadows showing blue/blue-violet, and going darker to show the increased value contrast.

The building has some historical significance, as the current owners stopped by and saw it in process, saying that it has been in their family for generations. I painted the bell posts that are an integral part of the city of Riverside, and a stop light (on red!) to balance the lower portion of the composition.

This original, on-location oil is for sale for $300 through my Paypal.

Tomorrow, I share with you the much LATER painting, looking toward the sun, instead of sideways to it. Same rooftop, totally different end result.

So many nice comments coming in on the Flash Cards–they are in folks’ hands now! Thank you all, so much!
You can see my entire blog here.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Sep 14 - A Win and A Show, Trying to Send Again…

It’s finished. Just exactly what I wanted it to be, with enough detail to keep the viewer interested in all areas of the image. And yet with a focal point that sneaks up on you–because of the mist and the closeness of values in that area. This 24 x 36 oil is available for $1200 although right now I don’t want to sell it.

How fun to finally pull one off that really says my art is going somewhere. I’m on a roll, expanding my thinking and yet paying homage to those who have gone before. In this case, it is Lanford Monroe, an East Coast artist who passed away at the young age of 50, and who was a stellar painter of the woods and Rockies–her husband printed a book of her work, called Homefields, and you can find it on line. I regret not knowing her while she was alive, but that is as it must be. Her ability to both tell a story and paint beautiful landscapes will live on forever because of his labor of love.

On another note, I was honored to receive Best in Show at the Maloof Foundation opening last night. As they were naming artists’ names, I celebrated each one, for I know their work and it is an honor to be hanging with them. Then first place, going to my friend Pat Ford, and finally the wait for the highest honor…. and the judge called my name! Here is the painting–it is one I did while at the Santa Rosa Plateau, near the Vernal Pools, and is an 8 x 10 oil.

The judge said it had that extra “spark” she seeks in plein air work, and I’m hoping she was referring to the color!!

Tonight I was at the Riverside Art Museum plein air painting while a great event was going on–Several of the best restaurants and wineries in the Riverside area brought out samples of their fare and we had music and painters while folks enjoyed the cuisine and libation. I painted two 12 x 16 canvases in the three hours, and you’ll see one of them tomorrow. The music was great!

You can see my entire blog here.

Order the new Color System Flash Cards HERE.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Sep 13 - Important Lesson on the Color System!

I was working on the 24 x 36 canvas this morning, and also working on putting together the Flash Cards packets, and was immediately struck by something (no, not literally!). Of course my painting is morning light–I knew that when I began it. I know the Color System so well that I didn’t need to have support material with me. But as I looked at the morning light Flash Cards, I realized you might enjoy seeing the cards in action. So for your lesson today, I put two of the Morning Light Flash Cards by the painting to show you what I found.

On the right is the Morning Light Flash Card with the red pear intact. That’s one you get with the set. On the left is the same card with the red pear desaturated (love Photoshop!). I desaturated it for two reasons–one, there is no inherently RED object in my landscape, and more importantly, I wanted the lesson to go home to you as clearly as possible. The lesson? Stick to the colors on the Flash Cards, and you’ll get great color! Wow…

Notice how the left card just blends into the canvas? The colors of morning light are clearly shown in my painting, and hopefully clearly understood when you see the card. I’m hoping that you’ll use these Flash Cards as you paint, and that the cards will end up being small “companions” for your paintings! You’ll know you’ve “nailed it” when the card just “belongs” with the painting.

Now, if I’d had a red object in the painting, then it would also harmonize with the right card.

This afternoon I head out for the Sam Maloof Foundation for the Plein Air Artists of Riverside’s show (I have two paintings in it). I’ll take along some of my flash cards and see if I can figure out who painted what time of day!! Now there’s an idea…. I’m going to take a set to my next museum visit and look at some of the Impressionists and Tonalist paintings.

The first sets have started to arrive–I just received this from Gabriel Baber in Temecula, “Ok Elin..you really did it this time. Great brainchild..Awesome idea with the flash cards. I am excited to have them..Thanks for getting them to me so quickly. Those of us that are visual people..do much better with the color images than all the words. ”

I’m so pleased they are helping people already!

I’ll finish up this painting for you tomorrow.

You can see my entire blog here.

Order your set of Color System Flash Cards HERE. And please share this with other artists.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

Sep 12 - Moving right along with the Landscape

I’ve had some interesting responses to the posting from yesterday, and want to address them here, as this painting is special for its misty light. Right now the sky reads as warm, but I need to share with you that the underpainting for this was done with a thin wash of a warm and a cool–to make a neutral. The two colors mixed for the underpainting wash were untramarine blue and australian red gold.

At this point in the painting, there are NO pure warms anywhere. So the neutral sky area reads warm because of the proximity to the cools elsewhere–temperature contrast. It’s amazing what colors do in relation to other colors. Ovanes Berberian once said, “A color has no temperature until it is next to another color.” At the time, I didn’t understand that. In growing into the Color System, I see it more and more, based upon the certainty of the colors I’m using to create cool and/or warm vistas.

Again, the source material:

I also need to stress that there is no mixture in the work that isn’t less than three hues/colors. This is how one gets those marvelous, harmonious grays. The source material is a lot greener than the painting–if I painted to that (the “match” instead of lighting a fire on my canvas!), I’d be using a lot more duo mixes–ultramarine and yellow ochre or the cool yellow. But each of my mixes is THREE or more colors from the cool box. Try it!

Now you know the “famous sky trio” will do those sky patches, and more details will be added, yet it doesn’t look too shabby at this point. Maybe I’ll finally do a painting that avoids the “Uglies”!

And I apologize for yesterday’s misprint on the link for the Flash Cards. I’ve fixed it and it is HERE. I’ve been filling the many orders, and am so happy that I bit the bullet and have enough to fill all of them. Over 50 sets went out in the mail last night!

You can see my entire blog here.

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

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

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