This group of  works spans a bit over 20 years, and shows figures in primarily urban settings. I tend to approach the figure in the urban landscape as if it were akin to theatrical space. “All the world’s a stage” to quote the bard. In many ways the street does present that kind of experience, considering the performative aspects of social display, interaction and reaction. The European tradition of the “promenade” was precisely for the purpose of facilitating social actions, and often the structure of the promenade space was circular, ensuring that engagement could be rehearsed multiple times during the course of an evening.

“What is called enjoying a summer evening by the river goes on from sunset until the last glimmer of the moon at dawn. Balconies line the river banks for drinking and feasting. Women knot their obi in splendid bows, men come turned out in long cloaks, priests and old gentlemen mingle with the crowd, even young apprentices of coopers and blacksmiths sing and make merry as carefree as can be. Truly a scene of the Capital!

The river breeze…
Out in a thin russet kimono
On a summer evening.”

Basho, quoted in ‘Beauty and Sadness’ by Yasunari Kawabata.

Rose Garden, Woodland Park, oil on canvas, 36X48 in, copyright ©2004

I’ll be starting plein air painting workshops late in the season this year. I have to finish several large commissions in the studio before I can commit to a regular plein air schedule. Sessions this year will begin in the 2nd week of June. Details re. days, times, fees, etc. can be found in the classes section of this website.

For some time I’ve wanted to create a stripped down website primarily for presenting my work on iOS, Android, and other devices. I still wanted  to retain my existing website, where I can provide a broad and in-depth presentation of my art, as well as class information, various resources, rss feeds and social networking integrations, perhaps a too excessive amount of material that reflects my range of interests, endeavors and a messy personality. I’m acutely aware that such a website, while of interest to the few, might well put off the avid art collector or casual fan. At the same time the presentation and density of material, though accessible from a computer or even an iPad, is not a very pleasureable experience for users of smaller mobile devices, at least not without a lot of pinching around and lateral scrolling.

Recently a designer of excellent web templates for the RapidWeaver web development application, Nick Cates Design, came out with a new effort called Mark 1. Mark 1 is a ‘responsive web design’ template, i.e. it scales beautifully to mobile devices, with multiple break points where the design restructures itself for optimal display in practically any size browser viewport. The technical underpinnings of the concept were first described by Ethan Marcotte, in a seminal book called “Responsive Web Design”, and Mark 1 is a practical implementation of the theory.

Using the Mark 1 template, I quickly repurposed some of the material on this site to create a stripped down, mobile device-ready version of “William E. Elston: The Art of Painting”. If you have an iPhone or an Android, an iPad or Kindle Fire, I hope that you’ll give it a look, and send some feedback if you feel so inclined. Indeed, the template is so flexible, it even looks good on a laptop or desktop computer! The url is http://www.elston.net/ .

Fremont Bridge II, oil on canvas, 30X48 in, copyright ©2002

I’ll be resuming regularly scheduled plein air painting classes this April. They go from April to November, we meet Tuesday and Sunday from 10 AM to 2:30 PM, with alternate sessions replacing bad weather days. Anyone can sign up for 8 or 16 sessions at a time, with 8 session credits costing $380, 16 session credits $650. There is a first time signup discount of $50, and for the first time ever you can now use PayPal to purchase session credits. You do not have to attend all classes, but can use your session credits for those days that fit your schedule. If you have unused session credits at the end of the year, they carry over to the following year’s plein air season.

We meet at various sites in the greater Seattle area, including Snoqualmie Valley, Snohomish Valley, the Eastside, Pioneer Square, Washington Park Arboretum, Discovery Park and other locations. More information is available in the classes section of this website.