Classes

Plein air painting is both pleasurable and ideal for getting at the "truth" of one's subject. But plein air work is limited by conditions, circumstances and logistics. Some weather conditions, especially in the Pacific Northwest, do not permit one from working exclusively "en plein air." Perhaps your trip to Mt. Fuji would make a great large-scale painting. But you were only there for a few days, just long enough to produce a few inadequate sketches. Or that view of Lake Union off of I-5 would make a great painting, but you can't figure out how to stop the traffic long enough to "capture the moment."

Since the Nineteenth Century, painters have relied on photographs as an aid to memory, as a sketching tool and as a means of cutting down on model fees. Long before that period, painters relied on technologies that predate the photograph but model perception in the same way. Newer digital cameras and computer-based graphics programs give landscape painters an unprecedented means of expanding their range of subjects. This class will offer an overview of these technologies, a historical discussion of painters' use of photographic media, and hands-on practical experience in the use of photographic technologies and their integration into plein air practice.

Each class will begin with a brief illustrated lecture, painting demonstration or discussion, followed by studio work and individual critique. Attention will be paid to exploring not only the advantages of photo-based working methods, but their limitations and disadvantages as well. Periodic group critiques will provide the student with the opportunity to articulate and evaluate their efforts in relation to their fellow students.

William E. Elston was born on June 18, 1949 in Spirit Lake Idaho. He grew up in the rural area southeast of Spokane Washington. He studied painting at Fort Wright College of the Holy Names in Spokane, and at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. After earning a BFA degree from Fort Wright, Mr. Elston spent several years studying privately in New York and Boston.

Mr. Elston has taught at Fort Wright College, The Spokane Art School, The Academy for Realist Art (now The Gage Academy,) the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and has been a guest lecturer at Marymount Manhattan College in New York, Whitworth College in Spokane, Eastern Washington University in Cheney, University of Washington in Seattle, and The Gage Academy.

William E. Elston is represented in Seattle by Davidson Gallery and in Portland Oregon by Elizabeth Leach Gallery. His work has been widely collected in the United States and in Europe, and is included in many public, private and corporate collections. These include Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, McGraw Hill, American Express, Ashforth Pacific, Miller Nash LLP, Swedish Hospital in Seattle, University Hospital, Bill and Melinda Gates, the City of Seattle and the City of Portland.