Workshop: Houston April 6-7, 2013

Ken Elliott


Making it Fine Art  Workshop

Houston  Sat-Sun, April 6-7, 2013 

view flyer

Ken will be discussing strategies for making fine art and taking your art to the next level.

Marsh Greens and Golds  oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches    sold

In his workshop:
This workshop is open to artists are all skill levels. Ken will discuss strategies for creating better artworks with a variety of common and creative tools. The workshop will focus the strategies for making better paintings, going to new places in your work and how to make fine art. Much attention will be given to improving your own artworks and career.

Ken will demonstrate painting using oil and pastel. He will discuss the idea of making strong starts and keeping the way open for more interesting and dramatic finishes. Ken is a very hands-on teacher, so there will be some collaboration if you are open to it.

In addition, Ken will talk about business and promotion, necessary to being a successful artist in the marketplace.

There will be serious discussions, laughs and your questions. We will all come away with new tools to take your art to the next level.

Complete info on my website.

Two-day workshop: $225. per person.
Contact Ken to sign up: email or 303-995-1611

Location: Mixed Emotions Fine Art and Framing

95 Tuam St. Houston, TX 77006   map

713-861-9666

Open to artists of all skill levels

11-5pm with after class discussions off-site? Dinner, etc?

This workshop is limited to a small number of artists and it will fill up quickly!

Other Workshops 2013:

Please contact me about teaching a workshop in your area.

Tentative plans are in the works for two-day formal painting and pastel workshops in 2013:  Denver May, Austin, Cape Cod, Atlanta, Ventura County, CA and New York. Two-day workshop: $225. per person.Some of you are interested in my traveling to your locale this year. Please give me a call and let's make it happen in your state.

Workshop: Via Picasso - Art Materials, don't let them get in the way.

There are a lot of ways to make art with endless materials not always found in the art store. It's healthy to see what other artists use for materials, but make sure that they are archival enough to stand the test of time. You may be making masterpieces, so don't shoot yourself in the foot!

Here's a previous post about art materials via Paul Gauguin and Jasper Johns 

 Masterpieces Made With House Paint

New York Times
By Douglas Quenqua

Published: February 18, 2013

Scientists using a high-energy X-ray instrument say they have solved the long-running debate over what kind of paint Picasso used in his masterpieces.

It was common house paint, said Volker Rose, a physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory who led the study, published in Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing.

“We were looking into pigments taken from Picasso’s white paint, which from a material perspective is zinc oxide, and we were able to study the impurities that are there,” Dr. Rose said.

The scientists also bought samples of decades-old house paint on eBay. After comparing those samples with Picasso’s paint, they determined that the two shared the same chemical makeup.

The instrument was a hard X-ray nanoprobe, developed by the Department of Energy to give scientists a close-up view of the chemical elements in physical materials. Its intended use is to improve the production of high-performance materials and energies. Using the nanoprobe, the researchers could view particles of paint that were just 30 nanometers wide. (A typical sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick.)

In his regular work, Dr. Volker uses the nanoprobe to study zinc oxide, a key ingredient in batteries, energy-saving windows and liquid-crystal displays for computers and television. Because zinc oxide exists in white paint as well, it made a valuable clue for the physicist to learn about Picasso’s paint.

Some art historians have long held that Picasso was among the first major artists to switch from traditional artists’ paint to house paint, which is more affordable and creates a glossy image without brush strokes.

Denver Workshop, March 16-17

Ken Elliott
 Making it Fine Art  Workshop

Denver Metro
  Sat-Sun, March 16-17, 2013   view flyer

This workshop has been filled.  A new Denver workshop in May, 2013 ? will be announced  shorty.  Feel free to email me for more details and to sign up.

Other two-day Workshops 2013:  Houston April 6-7

Tentative plans are in the works for two-day formal painting and pastel workshops for 2013 in Austin, Cape Cod, Atlanta, Ventura County, CA and New York. Two-day workshop: $225. per person. Some of you are interested in my traveling to your locale this year. Please contact me and let's make it happen in your state.

Marsh in Greens and Golds   oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches    sold

Ken will be discussing strategies for making fine art and taking your art to the next level.

In his workshop:

This workshop is open to artists are all skill levels. Ken will discuss strategies for creating better artworks with a variety of common and creative tools. The workshop will focus the strategies for making better paintings, going to new places in your work and how to make fine art. Much attention will be given to improving your own artworks and career.

Ken will demonstrate painting using oil and pastel. He will discuss the idea of making strong starts and keeping the way open for more interesting and dramatic finishes. Ken is a very hands-on teacher, so there will be some collaboration if you are open to it.

In addition, Ken will talk about business and promotion, necessary to being a successful artist in the marketplace.

There will be serious discussions, laughs and your questions. We will all come away with new tools to take your art to the next level.

Complete info on my website. 

Two-day workshop: $225. per person.

This is an indoor workshop in Ken's home, Castle Rock, CO. 

This workshop is limited to only 6 artists at any skill level. 

In the Studio February 3, 2013

Here's a day in the studio.  I'm finishing up a 48 x 72 inch commission.  On the top left is an oil finished today, "Illuminated Autumn" (photo below) and on the floor is a framed giclee "Bright Flow." It's been a very busy and happy time in the studio lately.

Illuminated Autumn  oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches

Colorful Slope  oil on canvas 36 x 48 inches

I began with the smaller Illuminated Autumn and after two sessions in the studio, started on the larger Colorful Slope.  It didn't take long for the larger oil to take a different direction than I had originally intended. It was very pleasurable to finish the larger oil and then return to the original concept of the smaller work. Both paintings fed each other, each creating better works than I had anticipated.