New Work: Rain Moving Across, oil on canvas, 30 x 48 inches

Rain Moving Across, oil on canvas, 30 x 48 inches
Sorelle Gallery, New Canaan, CT   $5400 unframed 

It is fascinating to observe the edges of rain coming to the ground. Once I began to sketch this out on the canvas, there were some gaps in the land patterns and it struck me to turn those gaps into reflective ponds or marsh areas.

The abundance of reflective surfaces opened up the center of the painting, created more depth and made the rain effect even more pronounced. The dark areas at the top and bottom of the oil help to carry the light into the far distance.

And for good measure, the strong diagonal, other cloud forms and the waterways all point to the falling rain. It's theatre - a stage is set for the rain to make an appearance.

Grateful Notices: Waters Edge in Blue, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

Waters Edge in Blue
oil on canvas, 36 x 36   private collection   Exhibited: Arden's Gallery, Houston

My thanks to the purchaser of this oil.

I love these rocky, coastal views and for this painting, the blues after sunset caught my attention. Each of the cascading land forms has a color of its own. Some of the rocks are in an atmospheric glow and the darker rocks express a substantial mass. It's interesting how the reds add the illusion of weight.

All of the elements here, the haze on the land as well as the water and sky are indicating motion. The color combinations flow across the oil with the last light yielding to the encroaching blues. There is a feeling that time is quickly passing and all that is aglow now will soon be gone. It is that perfect, blue moment.

New Work: Lake Shadows, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

Lake Shadows, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches  $4400 framed

I have returned to this image of a reservoir. It's a strip landscape and in this case, one with a lot of complexity. The painting is much about bands of color everywhere and a lot of manipulation was done to get them all to work together.

As the painting developed, my desire was to set up an interesting color combinations. In the process of doing so, I began to push the colors further to create light effects and vibrancy. This oil went through a number of changes with each one taking the oil further compositionally and chromatically. The finished work is alive with shimmering colors.

Initially, I had set out to do a more somber scene with a very limited color selection, but when the yellows and blues kicked in, they were too exciting to tone down and spoil the fun. That somber version will have to wait for another day.

Workshops: Making it Fine Art Workshops, Denver in July and Mass in Sept 2016

Trees in the Half Shade, oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches

View through the Orange and Red Woods, oil on canvas 40 x 40 inches

Workshops:

Castle Rock, CO (Denver metro)

Sat and Sun, June 9-10 9:30 - 5pm
Flyer and complete info
The workshop has filled / watch for a new date in October 2016

Open to artists at all skill levels and media
An indoor, two-day workshop limited to 8 participants.

$390 per person payable to Ken Elliott. 

Register online

and

Massachusetts
Marshfield, Sept 9-11 and

Falmouth, Sept 16-18

Making it Fine Art 3-Day Workshops with Ken Elliott
Sponsored by the North River Arts Society and the Falmouth Art Guild
Complete information on the Workshop page

Private lessons by appointment.
Please inquire. Complete workshop info on the Workshop page

Sunset over the Hilltop oil on canvas, 36 x 72 inches

In the Studio: September 10, 2015

In the studio, September 10, 2015

I'm currently working on three oils here, the 48 x 48 ocean scene and on the left at 30 x 30 and 36 x 36. The oil on the right is a completed 30 x 40 oil, Autumn Diagonal.

The two small oils are studies for more simpler compositions with more emphasis on color and expression. I'm having a ball creating new problems and working through the possible solutions. 

In the Studio: Art Class April 14, 2014

I have a number of new things in the works this week.

The two square oils center and right are older starts from a couple of years back. The center one is 30 x 30 and on the right, 40 x 40 inches. They have been lurking in a pile of unfinished oils. I could also call this stack a graveyard for bad starts. There is no need to beat myself up, it was the best I could do at the time.

Good starts are very helpful and provide an efficient path to a completed work. On the other hand, part of a great start is to just be mindful of what makes a good painting. Wolf Kahn has a good template: clarity, drama and contrast.

Part of a good start also means taking chances. You may use unusual colors, higher contrast, stronger brushwork, etc. For me, the idea is to thrill myself in large and small ways.

On the left, oils in progress: top 36 x 48 and bottom 30 x 48 inches.

There are a number of challenges in play here... going for the thrill !

In the Studio, Art Class: March 27, 2014

Busy week! It's nice to have a lot of starts going on at the same time.

Upper left, a 40 x 72 commission that is almost complete. This is a variation on an earlier large work in oranges and yellows. This oils is all about reds, yellows and greens. The trick is to keep the colors flowing all over the canvas, working the front to back and using leaf shapes without making portraits of the trees. Just a bit more tuning and it is done.

Lower left is a the now completed skycape Huddle at the Ocean 30 x 30 inches, started during my art class in St. Simons, GA last month. More info on the blog link.

To the right of that is a very old oil pulled out to the stack of paintings gone bad. It was once a very nice oil, but I overworked it my a country mile. I learned not to work at night since the lighting is not as true and I'm just not as fresh, giving me the tendency to slog on rather than paint smart. I painted over the foreground with a somewhat transparent yellow, added the dark trunks on the left and now a new painting is emerging from the earlier start. It calls to me now and I'll go where the oil guides me.

Center on the easel is another start from a workshop done here in the Denver metro two years ago.  It was also in the stack of coulda-shoulda made better starts at the time. After seeing it again last week, the start was pretty good after all. The bottom was just yellows and white canvas, so the aqua greens were added first. The white canvas coming through really shouts... hmmm. The trees were just a mass of upright trunks in very dark colors. I've added purple going to blue foliage to get something going, allowing a lot of the darks to come through. The entire oil is up for grabs - no spots are sacred, but it has the potential to remain a very strong and interesting landscape.

On the easel is the now completed oil Ed's view, Tomahawk Lake, 30 x 48 inches. It is one of those classic lake shapes. Not wanting to do the typical look,  I did my best to make it an interesting painting to view. It helped a lot to make a good start with some unusual colors thrown in for complexity and interest. Watch this blog Monday, March 24th for a posting that shows this finished oil in progress.

I'm starting to love that challenging stack of 'bad' canvases to pick through!

New Works: Huddle at the Ocean, oil on canvas

Huddle at the Ocean
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches


This is an oil started as a demo at my St. Simons, GA art workshop last month. I worked to keep it fresh, showing the work and complexity. The land at the bottom was originally a dark strip that I reworked to make it more interesting.

I had a friend watching me paint and discuss what I was at the time. Since there was an audience, I wanted to take that bottom strip further. Brighter colors were added, some indiscriminately and at the last minute, I decided that the bottom left needed something, so water became the device to add more interest.

Most of the colors were pushed a bit further, with care to not use the same blues and purples everywhere. In the end, I didn't paint out all of the original dark land but left small bits of colors and shapes at the center-bottom of the land mass. They became the ocean side 'huddle' of whatever the mind makes those shapes to be.

I'm ready to do a much larger version of this one!