Simple List
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"Whats What" At Leonard Brothers Fine Art
LEONARD BROTHERS FINE ART would like you to join us on Saturday, November 4, 1 - 5 PM, at the Opening Reception for WILLIAM E ELSTON's exhibition of paintings, entitled "WHAT'S WHAT".
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View Of Mt. Tahoma
This is a painting that was worked on for 3 successive summers, and then put aside for as many years. It's a subject that never stood still, and I ended up chasing its effects all over the place.
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Bailand Farms Plein Air Session
This small painting was the result of a single plein air session at Trudy Cooper's Bailand Farms. I was accompanied by Julie Stonebraker Nelson, Bin Li, Ray Munger and Liz Talley. We were later joined by Trudy's 9 year-old grandson Ben, who had his own French easel and paints.
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Plein Air Washington Artists (PAWA) Tri-Cities Event
I spent the past week in the Tri-Cities, at a PAWA plein air event that culminated in a wet painting exhibition, concurrent with a juried exhibition.
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Olallie Morning
This painting from Olallie State Park was begun on location in the fall of 2021, and finished in the studio in the first month of 2022.
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Plaza Güemes: Work-in-Progress
<
p>This is Julie Stonebraker's brief video of a painting session on a large work-in-progress. The subject is Plaza Güemes, a public square in the Palermo Viejo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
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Latah Creek Late Fall
This image of Latah Creek in the late fall was painted for an old friend, Patrice Pendell. It is one of my favorite spots in the entire world, a place that I can remember my father taking me to as a child.
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Lake Union
My studio assistant and I were moving paintings into storage and we ran across this work that I'd forgotten about. It was painted on location when I was teaching plein air classes where Lake Union feeds into the ship canal, under the Aurora Bridge.
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My Panther Lake Studio
My studio has been undergoing some changes, as I try to carve out some space to continue working. It's a losing battle, but I am getting help from my studio assistant, Julie Stonebraker. This cleanup also involves cleaning out a storage space that is full of paintings and other items.
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Small Paintings From The 90s
I was reminded of these small paintings when a former student signed up for my Online Group Critiques. Cynthia Edmonds acquired these works while enrolled in my plein air classes over 20 years ago.
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Pergola: From Grand Central Arcade
This painting of the Pergola was the first of several depicting this popular architectural fixture in Pioneer Square, Seattle.
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Riverfront (Kla Ha Ya) Park in Snohomish
This painting was done from a viewpoint adjacent the VFW Hall on Main Street (First) in Snohomish. I like the way the river meanders through the farmland, and River Road itself is a pleasant drive.
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Charlie & Buffy
I was sent this image of a painting that I did in 1983, by a person who had recently been gifted the work by her mother.
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Men's Furnishings
I've belatedly learned that one of my paintings was in an auction of American art at Sotheby's in New York in October 2018. The work sold at the top end of its estimate. It was originally sold c.1989 at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland OR, to Patrick Duffy, the actor best known for his role as Bobby Ewing in the series 'Dallas'. It was listed in Sotheby's catalogue as "from the collection of Patrick and Carlyn Duffy." Patrick's wife, Carlyn Rosser passed away in 2017.
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Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2019
Early this month I participated in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2019 event and exhibition at Maryhill Museum. This was my fourth year, and fortunately was not beset by extreme heat, high winds and a 14,000 sq. mi. grass fire, as per last year.
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Juanita Beach Park Apunte
I went painting on a Sunday with a few of my students, to Juanita Beach Park in Kirkland WA. It was a hot day that was barely mitigated by shade that we found along the creek.
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Farm To Market Road
These paintings of Farm To Market Road, near Edison WA, were first exhibited at i.e. gallery in Edison in 2016. Farm To Market Road 2 was slightly reworked in 2019. They're both small oil on panel works, and it's a subject that I'll probably return to. I love the elegant lines of the foothills that can be seen from there, as well as along nearby Chuckanut Drive.
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Some Recent Apuntes
I've been doing a number of small studies on Gessoboard, a commercial preparation of acrylic gesso-primed hardboard. They are done quickly, usually only an hour or two at most, and measure either 8x10 or 9x12 inches. I call them Apuntes, Spanish for notes or sketch, after having seen hundreds of Joaquín Sorolla's studies on cigar box lids, at an exhibition in San Diego in the early 1990s.
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Art Of The West - High Desert Museum
I'm pleased to announce that my painting "Mount Hood, Itself" has been accepted into the upcoming exhibition and benefit auction "Art Of The West" at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon.
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Man With Cart
This painting was exhibited at Davidson Galleries in the early 1990s. It was done before the Pergola was destroyed by a truck in 2001. The current Pergola is a facsimile, rebuilt from scratch. I still have this work in my studio inventory. It is one of the few paintings left from this period.
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A Hot Day
I have been contacted via email by a man in Indiana that has a painting of mine that he is interested in selling. It was purchased (not by him) in Portland at Elizabeth Leach Gallery sometime in the late 1990s. Anyone interested can contact me via this website, and I will forward your interest to the current owner of the painting.
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The 1990s, Early To Mid
Two different circumstances have recently brought me face to face with a number of paintings that I did in the early to mid 1990s. The first was the sale and delivery of a painting (Pilchuck River I) to a couple that have collected several of my paintings at a gallery that once represented me in Portland. The other circumstance was the swapping out of some old inventory for new at the Museum of Northwest Art and Culture (the MAC) Art Resource program, in Spokane WA.
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Commissioned Paintings
Over years past I've done a number of commissions, both for public and private collections. The public commissions have included works for Hewlett-Packard, Ashforth Pacific, Boeing, Evergreen Hospital, Miller Nash LLP, Seattle University Law School and many others. The range of subjects has included portraits, paintings of homes, regional landscape subjects, etc.
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Civil Architectures - The End Of The Viaduct
An Alaska Way Viaduct painting, a view from Ako Lindley's studio in the old 619 Western Building. This was purchased by the then CEO of Daniel Smith, Inc., and featured on the cover of their annual catalogue. The painting exceeded their budget, so I took half of it in trade for art supplies. I still have some of those.
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Linin' Track
This is a painting from my second show at Davidson Galleries. It depicts the lining of track for a new extension of the trolly that carried tourists from the edge of the International District to points along the Alaska Way Viaduct, all the way to Myrtle Edwards Park. The trolly was short lived. A sculpture park required real estate that provided the only maintenance shed for the trolly, at the start of Myrtle Edwards.
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Happy Holidays!!!
I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year!
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Portrait Show at Cascadia Art Museum
This painting, a self portrait from 1979, will be in an upcoming exhibition at Cascadia Art Museum, in Edmonds WA. The painting was done in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, where I was living at the time. It was exhibited in Soho at The First Street Gallery. I had just turned 30, and had spent my birthday drinking piña coladas with my Puerto Rican and Colombian neighbors in our postage-stamp sized backyard.
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Studio Practice For The Plein Air Painter
I have 4 seats left for this lecture. First come first served. Senior discounts available. More info at https://classes.williamelston.com
image: Charles-François Daubigny, Soleil couchant sur l'Oise, 1865
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Dodson's is Closing
The Jewelry Store / Gallery that I've been showing at in my hometown of Spokane is closing its doors for good in March of 2019. Dodson's Fine Jewelers, a fourth generation family business, has been a fixture in the Spokane downtown scene since 1887. Current owners Penn Fix and Debra Schultz plan to retire.
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Lecture 2, December 8, 1 PM
The second in my Winter Lecture Series, Studio Practice for the Plein Air Painter, will take place on Saturday, December 8th, at 1 PM in my Panther Lake Studio. It will cover a broad range of material, from practical aspects of plein air painting, to the history of plein air painting and its contemporary incarnations.
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Work In Progress: The Old Junk Store
This is a work in progress, an old junk store in Snohomish WA. I've worked on this over several sessions, usually with students also painting. The traffic is pretty thick, and often parked cars obscure the view of the storefront.
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Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm
This was a quick alla prima study done at Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm in Bellevue. It was painted on gessoboard panel. It may serve as a study for a larger painting.
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Winter Lectures Series
I will be offering a series of lecture/demos this winter. They will take place in my studio and will cover the following subjects:
Lecture 1: Painting Really Large in a Really Small Studio
Lecture 2: Studio Practice for the Plein Air Painter
Lecture 3: Realism - Two Hundred Years of Revolution
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Near San Diego
In 1986, after I had moved to Seattle, I took a trip to see my friend William Dubin in San Diego. I did several paintings there, including a smaller version of this, and then a larger one stretching out the composition. It's a scene near the beach, up the coast a bit. It was hot, and this odd triangular parking lot, out in the middle of nowhere, intriqued me. It's just beyond a railway, and didn't seem to have a purpose.
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Off 151st (Snohomish)
This is an alla prima (at one sitting) painting of a favorite view of the Snohomish Valley, above Hwy 2. It's easy to see the level of particulate matter (ppm) in the color of the sky nearest the horizon. It's the smoke. I once read that the pollution around Paris made the Impressionists' skies more interesting. That which doth not kill us makes our paintings stronger.
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Smokey Joe's in Snoqualmie
I was invited by my friend Mehdi Fallahian to participate in a plein air paint out in Snoqualmie Washington. I encouraged a few of my students, Bin Li, Liz Talley and Min Zhong, to participate as well.
I drove to the Duvall Park & Ride, where I joined Bin and Min in Bin's truck. We then went off together to the event. As soon as we arrived I knew what I wanted to paint. There was an old boxy tavern named Smokey Joe's, about a block off Railroad Avenue on King Street. I set up across the street, and did the painting alla prima.
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A Start
Sometimes a new start is abandoned before it really gets going. Then after several months out of sight and mind, it seems to awaken a spark of inspiration. This is just such a beginning. Normally this would be a subject for my Painter's Workshop page, but I thought I would share it on my Home page.
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Spokane Workshop
Before traveling to the Columbia River Gorge for the PNW Plein Air 2018 event, I spent a weekend in Spokane doing a workshop. We painted on Latah Creek and at Manito Pond. This painting was the demo for the Manito Pond session.
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Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2018
I've spent the past week in the Columbia Gorge, with my friend John Laney. We were in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2018 event at Maryhill Museum.
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Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2018
I will be participating in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2018 event in the Columbia River Gorge during the first week of August. The event will culminate in an exhibition at Maryhill Museum, with an opening reception on August 4, 5-7pm.
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3 Bothell Landing Apunte
I've been doing small studies, or apunte (spanish for 'note') of the Park at Bothell Landing. These are typically 9 x 12 inches or a bit smaller/larger. Some of them may get worked up into larger paintings, if the composition demands more scale.
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Raining Bridge
This third image is also from the Picasa download. It's a view of the railroad bridge west of the Hiram Chittenden Locks, from the Commodore Park side. The painting went through many changes; it was one of those variable seasons that Seattle is known for. It ended as a rain painting.
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Snoqualmie River
This is another of the images that I had stored on Picasa (Google Photos.) This was done at Bob Pepper's Farm, on the Snoqualmie River. I was with Henk Pander at the time, who is painting with his elaborate watercolor setup just off canvas. His setup includes two medium sized folding card tables, and he works on large, oversize watercolors.
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Pond
This painting was done in the later years that I was painting at Pepper's Farm, on the Snoqualmie River. The only image that I have been able to find of it was uploaded several years ago to Google Photos, when it was still called Picasa.
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Plein Air at Rotary Park
This is a work-in-progress, a painting that has been chased all over the place over the past year. The main problem is that the City of Everett neglects to trim back the foreground, and I keep having to shift my point-of-view to see my subject. By summer's end I suspect that the Snohomish River will no longer be visible, and I'll just be painting a profusion of jungle à la Le Douanier Rousseau.
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lightcityfog apunte
This painting, lightcityfog apunte is a small studio painting of a Spokane subject, the view from Division Street looking down Riverside Avenue.
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An Old Painting: Tug At Interbay
This painting was done in the late 1980s, when I first started showing at Davidson Galleries. It represents a tugboat moored at Interbay, between Myrtle Edwards Park and Smith Cove Park. We tried to sell it to Foss Inc., who operate a fleet of tugs in Puget Sound, but they would only buy it if the tugboat itself had their logo. It would have made the painting look strange, since the logo would have been illegible at the distance the tugboat is depicted.
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Snohomish Valley w/ Mount Rainier
This painting, done in 2008, has never been exhibited. I was never really satisfied with the treatment of the distant Mount Rainier, and I may revisit the painting again with brush in hand.
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The Story of a Painting
This humble still life began as a large figure subject, during the time that I was living in New York City. The model was a woman who danced with the Twyla Tharp Dance Company. She was also the wife of a friend, although they were shortly divorced.
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