New Work: Winters Evening, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

 New Work: Winters Evening, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

In the studio, $4400 framed

To purchase

About this oil:

This painting was full of surprises, twists and turns, but throughout, I insisted on that blue tree line in shadow. This was one of over a dozen other works currently in progress and it gave me the luxury of taking my time with each one, including a larger variation of this completed one still in the works.

As I was painting this oil, there was a calm that continued to come through. Despite my multiple experiments with the tree shapes and different skies, that serenity persisted.

As the painting evolved, the land and sky forms became more simplified and inversely, more powerful. After many changes and sessions, it all came together chromatically with every element finding the optimal placement.

New Work: Into the Green Forest, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

New Work: Into the Green Forest, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Exhibiting: Saks Galleries, Denver, CO

$10500 framed

To purchase 

About this oil:

There are a number of ideas at work in this oil. The first is the scale, the feeling of immersion in this forest. It is certainly the case when I’m creating a 5-foot scene of trees up close and it is all that I can see.

Also, there isn’t a break in the spacing of the trunks. In this arrangement, there is a slight change in density but the overall effect is of being in the forest and surrounded in that calm without an obvious path through. Although, and I just saw this, you could follow the golden path to the right!

There is a great deal of depth set up by the green and orange bands on the forest floor that give way to the glowing yellow-green forest beyond. As the painting developed, I was almost a spectator as the forest continued to expand outward, eventually giving way to the bits of sky at the top.

The colors are subtle, as this is a forest of many greens but the painting it is not really green. There are variations of blues and reds that are woven into the scene and they keep the green tones from shouting.

I will miss it when it leaves the studio.

January Newsletter, 2023

 

January News: “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” - Salvador Dalí "The perfect is the enemy of the good.” - Voltaire As artists, most of us start out trying very hard to achieve perfection. As a beginning landscaper painter, I was on the path, striving for the unattainable, but much was learned along the way.  One of the foundational discoveries I finally made was that nature is imperfect and in that way, it is absolutely perfect. That's encouraging. To that end, January has been a great month for painting almost every day and two 4 x 5 foot canvases were completed along with numerous starts. It's a joy and the studio is getting a bit crowded, but what a superb way to start the year.

New Works: Found Colors at the Snows Edge II Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches Exhibiting: Madelyn Jordan Fine Art, Scarsdale, NY Framed, $10500 About this oil Gathering Light III Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches $10500 framed In the studio  About this oil Ultramarine Blue Forest Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches Exhibiting: Madelyn Jordan Fine Art, Scarsdale, NY $2450 framed About this oil Available Works: Brightly Lit Woods Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches Exhibiting: Breckenridge Gallery, Breckenridge, CO $10500 framed About this oil Resumed - Blue Conversation, oils on canvas, 48" x 60" each, 48" x 120" total Exhibiting: Breckenridge Gallery, Breckenridge, CO $24,000.00 About this oil Workshops and Mentoring Sessions: Take your work to new heights. My Workshops and Mentoring Sessions will focus on strategies for making better paintings, colorist tools, going to new places in your work and making fine art. We will be going deeper into making better and more appealing artworks with a variety of strategies and in some sessions, there will be time for Photoshop insights made easy. all workshop info Here's a video about what happens in the Group and Private Workshops Ken Elliott American Landscapes coffee table book: This large coffee table book reprises over 25 years of my works in oil, pastel, monotype, etching and collage. Large, coffee table hardback version, 11 x 13 inches, 94 color pages with essays. Book and a signed giclee print of the cover image: $160 or just order the book for $125. eBook versions available for Amazon Kindle Fire®, Apple iOS devices, and macOS computers for $14.99.You can preview the complete book and how to order your electronic or hardback versions from my website. View my newest artworks sign up for this newsletter here Snow in Shadow Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches Exhibiting: Saks Galleries, Denver, CO $5700 framed About this oil This monthly newsletter is the best way to stay up to date with my new works and events. You can also follow me on Facebook and go more in depth with my blog. To view the total of my works in all media and in all my galleries, go to www.kenelliott.com Pass this onto a friend and they can sign up for this newsletter here. Thank you, Ken Contact Ken 303-995-1611 email website Sign up for Ken's blog Sign up for this newsletter Image top: (cropped here) Gathering Light III Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches $10500 framed In the studio  About this oil American Art Collector Magazine: "Elliott's canvases display the strikingly vivid modern hues in which he chooses to render his contemporary landscapes."  Southwest Art Magazine: Although his paintings loosely reference photographs and plein-air sketches, they refuse to exist within the confines of already-prescribed images. Rather, they stand independent of any specific place or time, the fulfilled pursuits of the artist’s visual and intellectual explorations. Elliott wields color boldly, creating sizzling, vibrant shapes that are at once kinetic and placid, grounded in unifying illumination, and focused compositions. He has a fascination with line structure as well, believing that “edges empower colors.”  Private Lessons and studio visits: I have really enjoyed giving private lessons individually or with groups over the years. It is casual, focused and fun. It is always a pleasure welcoming collectors into my studio, please email me a call to arrange a time. The workshops are very stimulating and you will see a big result in your approach to making fine art and clarity on your career strategies. Let's discuss what works best for you. What they are saying: "I had a clue what might be in store for my friends, but it went WAY beyond. You have a real gift. What a FANTASTIC couple of days!!!’ L. "Your painting demonstrations and the information you gave us  was invaluable- no wonder your paintings are so moving. I so enjoyed meeting you. Thank you for coming to Virginia." S. "Thank you so much for the wonderful, thought compelling workshop. You rekindled my love for making art. Your enthusiasm is contagious and felt throughout the room. You set up a stimulating environment that provided continuous visual images and your generosity in sharing those photos was much appreciated. I found you to be humorous, supportive and kind. I would recommend you as an instructor to anyone who would like to take their art to the next level." "I can't thank you enough for coming to Boulder! Thank you for your clear eye, your hard work, your beautiful color and your careful feedback. I'm now a different Painter...maybe a different person? I loved the weekend. And I can't wait until we get to soak up your love for the work, for Wolf Kahn, for COLOR -- yet again (note that I'm greedy).You are an amazing addition to our lives." M. "Thank you so much for lighting up our lives and our paintings at this past weekend’s workshop! I loved hearing about your time with Wolf Kahn, your thoughts on painting, the beautiful demo, and of course the great feedback you provided us on our own paintings." "You really reignited my desire to paint freely. Thanks also for your generosity in sharing the numerous links." "I hope to spend another weekend painting with you sometime soon." B.H. "Thank you for the workshop! It was a great two days. You are an amazing host and instructor, (two things that don’t always work together). "You pulled something from each of us and it was wonderful to be a part of it. Thanks to the moon and back," V. "Thank you Ken. It was a wonderment! I learned so much." Kathy "I so enjoyed meeting you and being part of the workshop. You got me on fire!!!!!" Ed "Wow! My weekend of private lessons was fabulous! While I was there I stepped into a whole new world that my soul was calling for." "Wonderful conversations, a beautiful time with great art everywhere and artistic success!" K.

New Work: Into the Green Forest, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Into the Green Forest
Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Exhibiting: Saks Galleries, Denver, CO

 
About this oil:
 There are a number of ideas at work in this oil. The first is the scale, the feeling of immersion in this forest. It is certainly the case when I’m creating a 5-foot scene of trees up close and it is all that I can see.
 
Also, there isn’t a break in the spacing of the trunks. In this arrangement, there is a slight change in density but the overall effect is of being in the forest and surrounded in that calm without an obvious path through. Although, and I just saw this, you could follow the golden path to the right!
 
There is a great deal of depth set up by the green and orange bands on the forest floor that give way to the glowing yellow-green forest beyond. As the painting developed, I was almost a spectator as the forest continued to expand outward, eventually giving way to the bits of sky at the top.
 
The colors are subtle, as this is a forest of many greens but the painting it is not really green. There are variations of blues and reds that are woven into the scene and they keep the green tones from shouting.
 
I will miss it when it leaves the studio.



 

New Work: Gathering Light III, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

 In the studio

$10500 framed
 
About this oil:
It was thoroughly enjoyable to start an oil of this size and to create an opportunity to push those reds across 5 feet of canvas. Those intense colors instantly dictated that the rest of the landscape would require brighter colors everywhere.
 
As surreal as this scene is, the addition of green makes the scene somehow more acceptable and natural. As the rest of the colors are pushed, care was taken to keep them all in sync with the outrageous background. It was quite the puzzle, resulting in this painting being months in the making with a lot of downtime in between sessions before all of the solutions were found.
 
There is one part of the oil that is not engaged as powerfully and that is the strip of sky at the top. As the painting developed, I kept looking beyond the bright hills and into that peaceful and normal part of the sky that was painted in at the beginning. I continued to keep those clouds as they were even as the other colors became stronger.
 
That unexpected combination of the natural and the extreme makes the work even more unusual and attractive.

New Work: Found Colors at the Snows Edge II, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

 

Exhibiting: Madelyn Jordan Fine Art, Scarsdale, NY

$10500 framed

 
About this oil:
Out in nature, we are surrounded in beauty and for many of us, inspiration. There are the broad, epic landscapes and those perfect compositions that artists will spend a lot of time searching for. I was among those searching for years and finally, I began to see more.
 
That’s when I discovered wonderful compositions presenting themselves almost everywhere. The arrangements were always available but found in the smaller places.
 
This is certainly not the epic landscape but it is a familiar one. This vignette of a forest contains endless possibilities of interpretation and as an artist, I took on the task to create something beyond nature, more striking and beautiful.
 
Much has been brought into play here with abundant and richer colors set off by the deep, delicate darks. All of the natural details are here, but slightly modified and heightened. The result is an artwork full of life and even in this small scale, a true sense of place.

In the Studio, January 1, 2022

I wanted to record this small portion of works  progressing in the studio today. There are a dozen others in play but this shot will bring back good memories in the future.

Every day is a new day in the studio and change is a constant. I start with an idea and as the painting develops, there are constant surprises and unexpected problems. Regardless, they are deviations from that original concept and adjustments are required. 

Sometimes the appropriate change is a thoughtful tweak or something more dramatic, but it is the change that is constant. There is always something new that is needed to bring a painting to completion and I enjoy the challenge.

New starts will be made this week and those new canvases will shift the feel of the studio. At some point, all the canvases take on a life of their own. They are very demanding, with each one wanting to be brought to fulfillment and it’s is a joy, (sometimes grrrr) to be invited into the process.

Here’s a peek into one of my two studios. All of these canvases are well-along and will be completed soon, with the larger ones at 4 x 5 feet. I do like to see them temporarily sitting in the floater frames as shown here because it’s a good way to see the works differently and to better understand what else is needed.

Thank you for sharing this first day with me.

I wish you all a marvelous New Year full of joy and sweet fulfillment. There will be changes and I hope they are all in your favor.