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.

Lowell-Larimar Road, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, copyright ©2011

This painting depicts Lowell-Larimar Road, right across from the painter Mehdi Fallahian’s farmhouse. Most of the work was completed on site, but required some additional studio work. I’ve gone back and forth about the composition and the various accessories of the rural landscape that I’ve included; the large tire pile, the concrete abutment, the empty 50 gallon drum. If one travels the backroads in search of a rural idyll, a la Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one is bound to be disappointed. Perhaps one can find Tathata in a pile of rubber tires, rotting fences and singing power lines.

Snowhaiku II

J & M At Dusk, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, copyright ©2011

My most recent painting will be included in the exhibition “New Contemporary Works” at Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave S, Seattle WA 98104. The exhibition will run from December 1st through January 28, with opening receptions on the First Thursday of each month. For those interested in process, there is some information as well as state photographs on my “new and in progress” page.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (self at 17 yrs.), oil on canvas, 26X18 in, copyright ©1983

This painting was done from a photograph of me that was taken when I was 17 years of age. I was in New York City, standing in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The photographer was the mother of Annie Irwin, former wife of Jed Irwin, whom I had met in Spokane when Jed was the art curator of what was then Cheney Cowles Museum (now the Museum of Northwest Art and Culture.) I was on my way to Montreal, as I had just been declared delinquent by the U. S. Board of Military Draft, and was subject to immediate deployment to Vietnam. Many people of my age that were opposed to the war were going to Canada, to escape the draft.

I sent the photo to my mother, after I arrived in Montreal. Several years after I had returned to the States, I saw the photo amongst her things and offered to do a painting for her in exchange for the photo’s return. This painting, faithfully rendered from the original photograph, was the result.

Many years later, the painting hung on the wall in my father’s room at the nursing home where my parents resided. It was eventually lost, probably stolen, as many things of value are stolen from the elderly by the nurses, attendants and orderlies that are supposed to be caring for them. Alas, I’ve lost the photo too, a casualty of the nomadic lifestyle that artists are prone to. This image was scanned from a faded old slide, the only evidence I have that the painting ever existed.

Snohomish Riverfront, oil on panel, 24 x 36 inches, copyright ©2006

The painting above has spent the last three plus years in Chişinău, Moldova, on loan to the American Embassy to Moldova, through the Art in the Embassies program. It has just returned from its long trip, and is currently at Davidson Galleries, in Seattle, in their inventory. Here is the relevant link to the U.S. Department of State – Art in Embassies Program: http://art.state.gov/artistdetail.aspx?id=144476

J & M Cafe At Dusk, work in progress

I’ve added some work-in-progress previews of a new painting, ‘J & M Cafe At Dusk’, to the New and Works In Progress section of this website. My intention is to present new works and works in progress, with comments and images to illustrate my working process. Have a look.