New Work: Blue Wish, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

Ken Elliott Blue Wish oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches  $5100 framed

This is truly an oil that painted itself. Last week I was out in a Colorado park with friends and I got a number of useful photos. This image is a pure fantasy, a tiny fragment from a larger photo of the sun setting over the ridge that day.

There isn't a single color or shape that is native to the photo and just as well. Once I began laying out the basic design, I kept to 2-3 blues and purples. Next, the faint, setting sun had to go in and that's when things really got interesting. 

Up to that point, this was a monochromatic winter scene but when the warmer tones of the sun appeared, it prompted the use of pinks, rust and grey-green. Everything began to fall into place from there. It was very tempting to continue to 'polish' it up a bit, but I was very happy with the rougher look and open brushwork.

New Work: Just After the Sun Has Set, oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches

Just After the Sun Has Set
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches $5100 framed
Saks Galleries, Denver

This is a scene from Castle Rock, CO near where I lived until recently. There were so many good sunsets looking west and I painted a good number of them. For this oil, the focus was split between the sky and land forms below.

Rather than focusing all of the color in the sky, I saturated the bottom half of the painting with the purples, reds, mauves and greens. The dark trees on the right set up a soft contrast as well as a border between the foreground and all that happens beyond,

It has a soft richness that I like. The water on the left was added last to create even more light effects, an improvement over the actual highway there.

New Work: Iridescent Lake II, oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches

 Iridescent Lake II, oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches  $2450 framed

Sometimes you just want to do a painting in a different way. This #II version is very similar to the first version below and the obvious difference is the yellow color shift. With this newer version, I opted for more open brush work and it yields a different quality to all of the elements in the scene.

Each time a new work is started, it presents new opportunities for learning and experimentation and as these two works show, so-called small changes can produce big effects.

Iridescent Lake II
Oil on panel, 24 x 24  $2450 framed
Dominique Boisjoli Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

Here's the earlier blog post for this oil

New Work: Evening Patterns, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

Evening Patterns, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
Saks Galleries, Denver  $12500. unframed

View the video

To begin, I followed my fascination with these delicate trees and the the limb patterns. A number of colors were initially blocked in and as the painting progressed, the blue/greens began to dominate.

Once the purples and pinks were added, the entire composition began to come together. It's not quite monochromatic and it's not really evening, but some condition between light and dark. I purposely left that bit of yellow light at the waters edge to help the composition and raise the question of how that can happen. And another question: Is that water?

Everything here is ambiguous by design. The painting just evolved that way and I followed it along, revealing some of the mysteries and leaving others. It's more satisfying that way, not knowing of everything in the forest.

Exhibiting: Sorelle Gallery, New Canaan, CT, Nov 8 - Dec 10

Forest Sequence I, oil on  two, 48 x 60 inch canvases, total size, 48 x 120 inches  $24000 unframed

I am pleased to announce an upcoming, 2-person show, Light Effects with Alina B. this November 8 at the Sorelle Gallery, New Canaan, CT.
A number of new works with be exhibiting, including my 3 x 10 ft. oil, Forest Sequence I (see below). The show continues through Dec 10.

View my works in the exhibition

LIGHT MOVING ACROSS
Oil on canvas, 36 X 60      $7500 unframed
More about this oil on Ken's blog, For the Color

Big Pond and Sky
oil on canvas, 40 X 60    $9950 unframed

Lake Palette II
oil on canvas 36 x 60   $7500  unframed

New Work: Iridescent Lake Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches

Iridescent Lake  Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches  $2150 unframed

I was very interested in red today, or more precisely, red on red on red. This oil was started with that in mind and once finished, the ambient light bathes everything in saturated red tones. For a colorist painter, it is a happy day.

One red won't do, otherwise the oil would become monotonous like one note over and over again on the piano. Instead, slightly different reds create an attractive disharmony, like a chord containing a sharp or flat note... a bit complicated and more orchestral or jazzy.

It did make a noise hanging in the studio!

New Work: Last Colors, pastel, 12 x 18 inches

Last Colors, pastel, 12 x 18 inches  $1350 framed
Exhibiting: Dominique Boisjoli Fine Art

This is all about a singular color and how to keep it interesting. I don't typically work monochromatically but the idea was to catch the greens lit up by a setting sun.

Everything was kept a bit rough at the edges so that the extra detail would add to the complexity. As the pastel progressed, the contrasting colors away from the sun looked best as red-browns and blue-greens. The harmonies were kept tight by using a minimum about of brights and darks.

I'm thinking all the pieces worked together successfully because my eye keeps circling around the pastel, taking it all in.

Grateful Notices: Winter Creek 30 x 40 oil

Winter Creek oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

Trees are a favorite theme of mine and in this work I combined then with a cold stream and winter trees in the background. Any foliage in the trees is barely apparent and the grass in the foreground is also understated. The composition is spare but not stark. That was the challenge and the joy of making this painting - just enough complexity to create the illusion of individual winter trees and others massed in a forest.

What little color there is alludes to the first hints of spring, leaving the patterns of winter to frame the cool blues and purples.

My sincere thanks to the buyers of this oil... I miss it already.