Ellen Allgaier
Fountain, N.W.S.
 |
EDUCATION: University of Arizona: B.F.A.(with honors)1974,
M.A. 1977 SIGNATURE MEMBERSHIPS: Visit my Gallery |
About my Art …
You won't find much "art speak" here - I perfer to let my work do the talking. When you visit my Gallery, you'll see that I have several different series of paintings primarily focused on landscape and still life. I started out drawing and painting representationally, and I still use this approach in the preliminary planning stages of any art I do. I consider this the best way to gather information about a subject, to explore it fully, and to take the time to assimilate it into my thinking, and to feel the subject. Once I have a sketch or a more complete value drawing, with details of particular parts if needed, and my notes on color, patterns, etc., then I have enough information to make whatever type of painting I feel the subject calls for, from realistic to semi-abstract.
Sometimes I like the illusion of three-dimensionality that painting representationally provides, and other times I want to emphasize that it's paint on a FLAT piece of paper by creating more abstract works emphasizing shape, color and texture. Working back and forth between different series satisfies my need to work in both deep and shallow space. Almost all of my paintings include patterning. Many contain representations of fabric. I learned to sew as a child, and I still love fabrics and their wonderful designs. My favorite painters and styles of art have all used pattern to some degree—Matisse, Rousseau, Klee, Native American and ancient Egyptian art, Japanese textile design with their hand-cut stencil (katagami) designs, and others. I use pattern as a purely decorative element, and in some cases to reinforce a narrative theme.
My approach to the watercolor painting process is also eclectic. Sometimes I use very traditional methods—wet-into-wet passages set off with hard-edged glazed on areas to pull out shapes. Or I may have a light pencil drawing and essentially "fill in" areas with flat washes of color. Other times, particularly in my mixed media works, it's "anything goes". I may use watercolor pencils, metallic watercolors, permanent markers or inks, combine transparent and opaque water mediums, use collaged elements, stamps, stencils, or anything else that helps create the idea I have in mind. Please take a look at my Tips and Demos pages. Many of these techniques and working processes are explained there in further detail.
In the early 90's I began using the computer as another drawing/painting/collage tool, and have produced a body of work I call digital paintings. These pieces are created using a stylus pen as my pencil/brush and a computer screen as my paper/canvas, and are printed on archival papers using archival inks, either as unique (one of a kind) pieces, or as print editions. Some are mixed media, since I paint into digital imagery with traditional art materials (watercolor, ink, etc.) I begin these works as I have always done, with inspiration and a drawing which is either scanned from my sketchbook or drawn directly on my digitizing tablet with the stylus pen.
BiographyI was born in Lewiston, Idaho and spent my first five years there. Our family then moved to the north fork of Moon Creek, a few miles from the small mining town of Kellogg, Idaho (near Coeur d'Alene). My becoming an artist was enormously influenced by growing up in a rural area. I feel blessed to have had to create my own entertainment—we had no TV or telephone until I was fourteen and had moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington. My sources of inspiration were the natural world that was all around us—the creek next to our house, the animals we saw (and some we tamed to eat from our hands), my mom's interest in art and sewing, and, of course, books. I lived in my imagination, and expressed myself through painting, making doll clothes, and drawing. My first major art award was a year's supply of 365 Golden Books, won for illustrating and constructing a pop-up scene from Jack and the Beanstalk.We moved to the Seattle area after I got out of junior high. After graduating second in my class four years later from Bainbridge Island High School, another move took me to northern California, where I attended Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. More moves (back to the Pacific Northwest and then to Southern California, Hawaii and Arizona) and a marriage later, I finally earned a Masters Degree in Art Education from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where I now make my home with my husband, Jim, and a tortoise-shell cat we inherited when my stepfather passed away in 2005. After college, I continued to add to my knowledge of watercolor by occasionally taking watercolor workshops, by reading everything about watercolor that I could get my hands on, and most importantly, by painting, painting, painting! That regular practice was–and continues to be–my best teacher. I've been working primarily in watercolor and other watermedia since the early 1970's, and have exhibited in over one hundred invitational, solo and juried shows, and received over four dozen awards since 1982, one-third of which are national awards earned outside Arizona. I have taught workshops and classes in many locations, and I like sharing what I know with others. I love what I do, and now through my website, I can share with a lot more people!
To contact me via e-mail, just click here |
|
