Judith and Jesse Newman

Judith Newman and I have been through the "war zone" together.  

We have known each other for years.

She sent me this photo of her son, Jesse, and herself, obviously mugging for her very capable camera.  I painted them in their crazy pose.

Happy New Year, Judith!!

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!

The doggies were snuggled, and the cat too.  Waiting for Santa to appear, and knew...

That he would come soon to bring them toys

And loads of treats for our girl and the boys...

Health, happiness and much joy in 2014!

Thunder By The Ocean

Thunder By the Ocean….

A lone horse flies down the ocean front while

scavenger gulls caw and flap to his rhythm….

I loved painting this.  

Hope you enjoy it too.

Look Through Any Window...

I have always been a little frightened of acrylics.  

They are STRONG in color and different to handle, compared with watercolors.

With watercolors, I paint fairly photo-realistically.

With acrylics, I decided to let it all hang out.

In LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW, I did just that. 

TOUCHDOWN !!

This young fellow is the grandson of my dear friend, Annie Bickley.

Emmet is a fine athlete even at an early age.

He loves to run through the grass, seriously looking for the goal line.

GO EMMET!

Chinese painting with Lian Quan Zhen

I took a painting class with Lian Quan Zhen.  

He was wonderful.  Great artist and super sense of humor.  

I generally cannot STAND painting flowers and focus most of my attention on people and animals.

This work was done with Chinese brushes and colors on rice paper.

Imagine!

IMAGINE!!!!

The assignment was to paint "Imagine" for our art league.

So I thought about all of the things I could imagine...

And here is my result:

If Pigs Could FLY...

They would fly over the MOUNTAINS, of course.

Enjoy!!

Tiny Columbine...

The task was to paint a miniature painting.  Anything we wanted.  I chose something I truly avoid at all costs.  Flowers.  I love them, but find them incredibly difficult to paint.  3x5 mighty inches overall, this little beauty is our state flower here in Colorado.  Enjoy, everyone.

The CAT is out of the BAG!!!

NIMS is the cat of my dear friend, Sonia Cohen.

This cat is a REAL CAT -- loves to climb into things and play hide and seek.

Here Nims has climbed into a brown paper bag, and YES,

She successfully got out of the BAG!

Love to you and Nims, Sonia.

Elle

Mrs. Jenkins, You Have A Lovely Daughter....

THIS little cherub is the daughter of Jane Jenkins.  

Jane is a huge supporter of CARE, or Colorado Animal Rescue.

Little Zoie is absolutely fuzzy and happy and wonderful.

I hope that this painting makes Jane grin!

Lily THE HUNTRESS!!!

Kathy and Bill Hegberg have a doggie named Lily. 

 She is a powerful dog of long proportions who hunts, leaps off of kayaks in search of fish, and has ATTITUDE.

I love her determined look, her sleek, well-toned body, and her BIG-ness.

THIS DOG ROCKS.

Women of Beauty

The Task Today:  To paint three paintings that relate to one another.  Use some to a lot of collage, paint, textures.  Never have done this before.  I chose small amounts of additional collage materials, lots of paint -- applied with fingers, brushes, and sticks.  The figure is from my drawing earlier this week -- a young lady, nude, with her arms spread wide.  I loves this figure.  Hope you do too!

Wind In Her Hair...

OK.  I bit the bullet.  I decided to try ACRYLIC PAINT!!!

Good grief.

One would think me Benedict Arnold!!!

I bought paints, brushes, gesso (???), and all of the STUFF.

I held my breath and walked into Robert Burridge's

classroom in Sedona.  Five days of instruction by this fabulous, encouraging,

thoroughly competent painter.

Today, the task was to paint our nude model.

We were to paint her, but nothing specific.  No details.  Just HER.

This is my painting.

I am having FUN!

Miss Molly Brown

Miss Molly Brown passed away and is residing at Rainbow Bridge.  She was an outdoor girl, a mountain queen, and best friend of my friend Janis Huggins.  

I thought it was fitting that I paint Molly Brown for Janis.  Like many of us, Janis is a dog lover and misses Molly Brown every single day.  I can relate to that.  Each of our fuzzy children is special, and has a permanent place in our heart.  

Here's for you Janis.  

With love,  Elle

Chloe Kurt

Meet Chloe Kurt, daughter of Carol and Karen Kurt.

She is young -- just a puppy, but smart as a whip and sweet as the day is long.

An Aussie Shepard, she is soft and and has wispy fur.  

We all welcome her to our hiking community in Aspen!

The Albrecht Children...

         Cricket and Casey are adorable Ragdoll kitties.  They jump and play and sleep in the sunshine.  Their fur is soft and wispy and floats in the air.  As I painted them,
I could feel their warmth and gentle sweetness.  

Miss Chicken in Scottsdale, Arizona

Miss Chicken arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona!  She has been around the world several times, and travels incessantly.  She came here, after waiting for over a year on a list.  All of the artists on the list wanted to paint her.  I wanted to paint her too.

I thought that she would like to see our desert here, so I painted her among the cacti in the Sonoran desert.  I think she enjoyed it here, although she couldn't understand why she couldn't touch the cacti.  I explained that the cacti have large thorns that stick you if you touch them.  One needs to admire them from afar.  She thought that was just fine.

Miss Chicken leaves tomorrow for her next destination.  Good-bye Miss Chicken.  Thank-you for letting me paint you!!

Quiet Study

My friend, Bernie Grauer, was bicycling in the Frying Pan River basin.  

He stopped when he saw these magnificent long horned sheep.  He was able to get a few photos of them -- just quietly studying their surroundings.  Aren't they stunning creatures??

Eat More Chicken!!

I just love cows and steers!  They are so unhurried.  They look DIRECTLY at you and just watch....

My dear friend, Gini, allowed me to paint her photograph of these steers.  Thanks, Gini!