Ellen J. Brown is showing oil paintings at BastowDesign Studio #208 in The Pickford Artists Studios above The Historic Pickford Cinema 1318 Bay St Bellingham, Oct 6th during First Friday Art Walk 6-10 AND Oct 28th during the Old Town Art Stroll Saturday 12-5
Ellen studied art history, printmaking and painting at The Art Institute of Chicago and WWU. At the Institute, she took her first formal art history class and saw Paleolithic and Neolithic for the first time. It continues to inspire her work. In Neolithic European cultures, bones, beads, bowls, lineal marks, tools, statues — all accompanied the dead for their journeys to the underworld. They were often meant only for the dead and intended to stay buried and unseen. These sacred forms and marks of Neolithic cultures inform our understanding of lost cultures, and also let us know how close we are to our ancestors. Ellen’s richly hued oil paintings examine what is left behind to accompany the dead to the next world.
Ellen works in oil and acrylic paints. She paints plein aire, figurative works and landscape painting in and out of her home studio. A life long learner, she takes art workshops several times a year and enjoys discussions of many art disciplines with teachers and students. Additionally, Ellen offers her skills to local law enforcement agencies for forensic drawings —“police sketches”.
As the cold nights descend, and we shiver with the season, lean into cryptic images of what we thought would stay buried and join us to see Ellen’s work.