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Updated 9/30/08
Wild (and Loose) Horses in Paintings by Elin Pendleton
Horses running free, horses in the wild, mustangs and horses at liberty captured in oil paintings and acrylic paintings.
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"Morning Back Light" Time for acrylics again! This 11x14 painting was done from another of he morning ranch images, and is done in those wonderful acrylics. Even with the low humidity, I can continue to work with them, creating the luscious layers of color. Would you believe that this painting started out with a layer of dioxazine PURPLE and thalo BLUE under all those wonderful grays? It creates a sparkle that is just wonderful to see in "real life". I do so love backlit subjects, expecially when the light creates strong value contrast.
Yesterday after the ride I was "lope tested" so I can go on the advanced rides for the remainder of the week. According to my friends who've been here an additional week, some of the advanced rides are VERY challenging. I can hardly wait! Here's a small photo of me on the cremello horse Sabino, near one of the watering holes on the ranch. Yes, that's my new saddle, and yes, that's a calf who wants to play! Contact Elin or
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"Evening Back Light" One of the greatest things about living on a working cattle ranch is the photo opportunities that abound in the wee hours of dawn. I was able to get out of bed and head to the corrals for picture taking as that morning light came streaming across the valley, almost horizontal as it lit the horses and wranglers in their morning chores. Then off to breakfast, and a return for a ride over the rangeland, "brush poppin" and going up to "the Fortress" near the Apache stronghold. Four of us were on horse back to do that this morning, and then returned to the ranch to do separate things. Me, I painted this first pass on a 12 x 16 oil of one of those "morning horses" in a different palette than the acrylic of a few days ago. I'm also sending you a smaller image of me on Socks, the horse I've changed to for the last couple of rides. He's more like my Raindance mare at home. With memories of knowing I was traveling on a trail used by Apache chiefs Cochise and Geronimo's people, I write to you in the evening of quite a memorable day! (And it is only Tuesday!) US $350.00 Contact Elin or
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I know you have been patiently waiting for the finish on this step-by-step painting of the horses in the snow, and I'm pleased to share with you the almost -finished work today. A fitting end to the end of February--brrrr!! This part of the painting process was with a focus on edges and details. None of those details or edges were in any way important in the last view of this work (February 25). This part of the painting process is actually a lot of fun for me, as I make decisions aobut what is important, and what isn't. This stage can be the most difficult for the learner, in that without experience, the choices are so many! So may I encourage you to paint more, for there truly is no short cut to making good paintings except the doing of it--the progressing from learner to experienced artist.
Being experienced encouraged me to add the steam breath of the horses, increasing the feel of cold weather. Entitled "Waiting for Dinner", this 16 x 20 original oil is in anonymous collector's hand from San Diego, California
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"Moving Forward" How profound this painting is for me. Here I am in the new (chaotic) studio, and yet I keep my head focused on the future and the paintings that will emerge from this space, and voila! I make a definite keeper. This 6 x 12 oil is a marriage of Kentucky memories and horse language with the mare taking the youngster forward into greener pastures! I'm taking my art that way, too, with planned workshops next year and a full schedule this fall. Can we as artists paint our own futures? I think so. One of those lines for accomplishing something comes to me now, as I remember what I used to tell students, "Aim at nothing; you'll hit it." So I aim for a bright and positive future. Potholes on that road may slow me down, but, like the mare, I'm moving forward.
 to a new collector in Poway, California.
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"Moonlight Exercise" This painting is a really quick study that I'll take with me to Kentucky next month, to help explain the color system for moonlight scenes during the workshop I'll be teaching. I'll do a second one with far more muted colors, to help the students understand that with advanced practice, the colors you choose become more subtle and thusly more beautiful to the human eye.
It's an oil, 5 x 7 inches. The horse was done without any yellow but yellow ochre.
$100 Contact Elin or
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"Sunset Across the Water" Today's daily painting is an acrylic, a 12 x 16, and comes from material gathered in Kentucky, modified by me, and shows the Color System at work to convey evening light with a subtle back lighting on the horses. It's a real trick to get the sky to read right without showing up with garish colors. I think I got it this time.
to Rebecca Doty
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"In a Mountain Valley" The mist rises on the morning valley pasture and the horses are alert as the sun glows off the mountains above. But this mountain sunlight is only seen in the water, which makes for a most interesting composition, and a bit of a surprise after seeing the two black horses.
I am reflecting on things that are like these mountains, missed because I am looking down, focused in a different direction. People around us who care and have a different view, point out the beauty in our lives, and then we see it. I always love how water takes beauty and presents it to us in another way, and am often amazed at how much beauty we miss in reflections.
Tonight I reflect on the list folk who have said what I write makes the art come alive for them, and I need to say how grateful I am that you feel this way. Like the reflections in the water, you give to me a view of the world I might otherwise miss. Thank you!
Original oil on canvas, 12 x 9 inches.
to a Michael Staton in Los Angeles, California.
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"Summer Tails" I saw this thoroughbred mare and foal at a horse ranch about five miles north of Lake Elsinore, and near Corona. The blue fences in shadow contrast so beautifully with the sunlit mom and baby. Original oil on archival board, 12 x 16 inches, US $ 650 Contact Elin or
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"Miniature, White Arabian" This tiny canvas measures only 1.25 inches by 2.5 inches! It is actually about the size you see it on your screen. If you click on the link, you'll see it in my hand in its frame. I so enjoy painting miniatures as a break from the larger pieces. These are only available framed, as framing costs and styles are dictated by the shows in which they are entered. Available for US $300 Contact Elin or
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On Location, Mares I spent one beautiful Thursday afternoon near this pasture of mares and foals, and quickly captured the feel of the laxy afternoon. Even horses can be done "en plein air". Original oil on canvas, 12 x 16 inches, US $ 375 Contact Elin or
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Aerial Shoeing This is one painting I am very proud of. Why? Because it takes a routine subject for many horse owners and puts a totally different and new cast on it. I climbed up our water windmill tower and took the source material photographs for this painting, and I'm just really pleased with it. "Aerial Shoeing" is scheduled for exhibition at the Fall Show of the American Academy of Equine Art in Lexington. Original Oil on canvas, 12 x 24 inches, US $ 950 before the show, from the artist. |
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"Baby Paint" When the folks over at Walter Foster saw my "Baby Bay" painting, they asked if I could do one in acrylics, and make it a paint, to show how I paint foals. Not a problem! Here's the 12 x 12 acrylic that will be published in January 2005 showing this coloration in a tri-color bay pinto! Original acrylic, US $ 700 Contact Elin or
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"Snow Serenade" Here's a horse that's feeling the joy and pleasure of being let out to run after a snowfall. All four feet are lifted off the snow in that fleeting moment of the gallop. This painting has a beautiful back light, glowing through the snow and on the horse. Original oil, 30 x 40 inches. US$ 2150 Contact Elin or
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"Looking Back, Mare and Foal" For the book on painting Horses in Acrylics (out January 2005), Elin painted this 12 x 16 image of a mare and her foal to show the size relationships between them. Original acrylic, US $450
Contact Elin or
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"Better Late Than Never - A Small Miracle" Again Elin is working with acrylics on Stonehenge paper, usually reserved for the silkscreen market. An amazing paper that seems to have a mind of its own, Elin likens the experience of working with it to training a young horse. Here is a mare that has given birth to a foal well into the autumn, outside of the normal season. But an aged mare giving birth at all is a small miracle. Thus the title. Original acrylic on Stonehenge paper, 11 x 20 US$ 440 Contact Elin or
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