William E. Elston: The Art Of Painting: New and In Progress

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The works on this page represent works-in-progress and new works. They are presented with various state photographs, sometimes with accompanying work product and sketches. For those who would like a more intimate look at art practice, and one artist's approach to it, please visit my Painter's Workshop blog.

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About William E. Elston

William E. Elston is a professional artist and teacher living in the Pacific Northwest. He has exhibited for over 40 years, and has works in numerous public and private collections, both in the region and internationally. He is best known for urban and rural landscape images. He is also a founding member of the Northwest Figurative Artists' Alliance.

Aside from teaching painting, Mr. Elston also teaches karate, and has sandan rank in the World Seido Karate Organization.

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New Paintings and Works In Progress

J & M At Dusk

J & M Cafe At Dusk: A Work In Progress

This painting began as a snapshot taken on my DroidX cellphone at dusk. I've painted the J & M many times before, including at night. The tavern sits right at the center of Seattle's cabaret district, and has seen its share of drunken revelry and barroom brawls. The painting is now finished, but by toggling between states you can get an idea of its progress from the initial lay-in to its completed state.

The initial snapshot from the DroidX was supplemented by a series of photographs that were taken a few days later. I corrected the parallax and perspective problems in Adobe Photoshop, determined the desired composition, and added photo material to create the montage that was my primary work product.

Painting at dusk or later presents a number of problems for the painter. If working on site, it is difficult to illuminate the canvas and palette. The photoreceptor cells of the eye that come into play in low light situations do not distinguish color well, and artificial source light causes spectrum issues when the painting is viewed in daylight or under expensive gallery illumination.

When taking photographs at dusk or later one must compensate for the extended shutter times, stabilizing the camera as best one can. Spontaneous and incidental photography doesn't permit sufficient time to set up a tripod. Even low level neon signage causes significant overexposure that obscures detail and color. Also, the camera does not shift from rod to cone photoreceptors in low light as the human eye does, so one has to compensate by pushing the overall palette in tertiary directions.

Additionally, the eye tends to fill deep, dark passages with some peripheral ghosting that gives one's experience of evening a pillow-like softness. This is an advantage for the artist, as it adds an air of mystery.

The J. E. Boyden: An Historical Re-Imagining

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The painting depicted here is a commission from a client that is involved in projects with the Center for Wooden Boats, a non-profit historical center located in Seattle. The painting was inspired by an effort to map the bed of Lake Union and other bodies in the Puget Sound region. Not so long ago, and spanning a few centuries, when a boat had reached end-of-life status they simply took it out into Lake Union, Lake Washington or the Sound and sank it. The lake bed is littered with thousands of old vessels in varying stages of decay. The current project uses side scans and other investigative tools to map the historical topography of the lake bed.

The J. E. Boyden was one such vessel. It plied the waters from the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Lake Washington, towing three-masters, whales and Native Americans from about 1886 to 1932. I was provided with historical photographs of the J. E. Boyden, as well as some of the tug resting at the bottom of Lake Union, with the tugboat's name clearly legible. The boat itself had undergone many changes during the course of its lifetime; different paint schemes, repairs, etc. At one point the crew went on strike until adequate quarters were built for them above the cabin.

Using the photographs and other material, I created a series of photomontages and watercolor studies that seemed viable compositions for a representation of the J. E. Boyden as she existed during her long career. Much of the glue that bound the various elements of the painting – wind, sea, atmosphere and ship, needed to come from my imagination.

The painting was executed over a period of months. It followed the traditional phases of cartoon, lay-in, refinement and finish which are depicted in "the painting in stages" section below. It's been an exciting project, and one that has taken me well out of my comfort zone of working directly from nature. This project had more of a sense of picking over the scabs of history to see if there is some blood there. My conclusion is that there is.

Update: At the client's request, some minor changes have been made to this painting, completed in May of 2012. I have updated all final images to reflect these changes.

William E. Elston

The Art Of Painting