Some Open Water, a new oil on linen, 22×30 inches

He is one of the most respected, accomplished, and completely skilled sporting artists of the contemporary era.

Tom Davis, SPORTING CLASSICS

It’s hard to put into words what my picture making is about. When I’m out in the country bird hunting or wading a trout stream there are enriching things I see. I want to get hold of what that is, distill it, and get it down in a way that I can communicate it. It’s a wordless process about shapes, patterns, colors, and textures that when seen and understood and translated to paint can create a visual response like the experience that moved me. Doing this is one of the most rewarding pursuits I can imagine, and after nearly fifty years I’m enjoying it more than ever. 

 PUBLICATIONS ~ What a fine job writer Jenna Vandenberg did in the beautiful presentation of my work in Western Art & Architecture in the December/January issue. Also, anyone involved with pointing dog breeds should know about Chris Mathan’s Strideaway website. It is beautifully done and full of rich content. And I couldn’t be more pleased with her great piece about my work. Shooting Sportsman used my woodcock drawing with a story in January while Pointing Dog Journal did the same with my painting of Bobwhites in March.

SHOWS ~ I’ll participate for the sixth year at the Prix de West Invitational, in Oklahoma City in June. Later in the summer, I will participate in Trailside Gallery’s Masters in Miniature Show. Coming up this fall will be Insight Gallery’s Fall Gallery Show in September and the Collectors Covey Miniature Show will be in November. For dates and other exhibit information, please see my website www.eldridgehardie.com, and look on the Events page.

OTHER ~ I want to remind you I am making this semi-annual newsletter and other timely updates available by email where I can include new paintings and other images. If you would rather receive them that way, please sign up on my website.

In addition to my own studio, these fine galleries, InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg,TX, J.N. Bartfield Galleries in New York, Collectors Covey in Dallas, and The Sportsman’s Gallery in Atlanta and Beaver Creek, CO are the principal sources for my paintings.

And finally, please don’t hesitate to visit one of the galleries or to check with me at any time about available work or about a particular subject you have in mind. I would enjoy hearing from you. And one more thing, I’d certainly appreciate it if you would Like my Facebook page.

Because personal experience is behind true sporting art, it is in a class by itself, and has had very few masters. Among them: Winslow Homer, Carl Rungius, Frank Benson, A. B. Frost, A. L. Ripley, Thomas Eakins, and Ogden Pleissner.

In the foreword to The Art of Ogden Pleissner the artist is quoted as saying that he was “a landscape painter, a painter of landscapes who also liked to hunt and fish,” and he wanted to be recognized and remembered for the full range of his work. However, it was his sporting work that I first saw and related to back in the early 1970s just when I was trying to find my way as an artist. I could see that he was painting his interests and doing it with authority. This helped me understand that I could best express my creativity by painting my own similar passions.

Here are a few Pleissner quotes from his book–the kinds of things about him that attract me to his art and influence my own work:

A fine painting is not just a subject, not just the article of the image on the canvas. I think it is the feeling conveyed of form, bulk, space, dimensionality and sensitivity. The mood of the picture is most important.

A fine number of the fishing and shooting fraternity are awfully nice people who love to travel and enjoy the outdoors. They are conservationists and like to be out and see the game and the country. They’re damn fine people, I have found. And they and bird dogs make very good friends.

Painting is a funny profession. I’ve always felt pretty free as to what I can do. I just paint something in the neighborhood I am in, and I’ve been in some vey nice neighborhoods and seen some lovely country in the course of my work.

What a role model!

My Afternoon With Western Art & Architecture Writer Jenna Vandenberg 

When Jenna Vandenberg came to my studio last fall to interview me for her article Painting his Passions, she was well-prepared with insightful questions that led to about a two-hour conversation that she tape recorded. Along with a disc of painting images, she also took with her all the background material I could think of that might help her. When her draft was done she graciously gave me the chance to comment and make sure the factual details were right. I’m delighted with the fine job she did and the beautiful presentation of my work by Western Art & Architecture. 

Thanks to Western Art & Architecture magazine for letting us post this PDF: Western Art & Architecture DecJan13