Ellen Allgaier
Fountain, N.W.S.
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Studios in Tucson, Arizona and Bainbridge Island, Washington 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 dozens of awards since 1982, one-third of which are from international/national open competitions. 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! EDUCATION: University of Arizona: B.F.A.(with honors)1974,
M.A. 1977 JURIED SIGNATURE MEMBERSHIPS: Visit my Virtual Gallery |
About my Art …
When you visit my Gallery, you'll see that I have several different series of paintings primarily focused on landscape and still life. The natural world continues to inspire, amaze and challenge me to sort out order and pattern from what appears to be chaos. 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. Once I have a sketch or a more complete value drawing, with details of particular parts if needed, and my notes on color, patterns, time of day, 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 just paint on a FLAT piece of paper by creating more abstracted works emphasizing shape, color and texture. Working back and forth between different series satisfies my need to work in both deep and shallow space, and to focus on either the representational aspects of a scene or on its underlying organization/structure. 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, to create rhythm/repetition, 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, paint on gessoed paper, or use anything else that helps create the idea I have in mind. Many of these techniques and working processes are further explained in short articles found in my Watercolor Learning Center.
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 substrates (paper or canvas) using archival inks, either as unique giclée (one of a kind) pieces, or as giclée print editions. Some are mixed media pieces, where I paint on 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. If these works are unique (one of a kind), you'll find them in the originals section of my virtual gallery. If they are part of a print edition, they'll be in the prints section. One of the advantages of creating digital paintings is that they can be output on paper or stretched canvas, in a wide variety of sizes.
BiographyI was born and grew up in northern Idaho. 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 in high school. 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 (Bainbridge Island) after my eighth grade school year had been completed. After graduating second in my class four years later from Bainbridge High School, another move took me to central California, where I briefly 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 live now with my husband Jim. We also spend part of the year on Bainbridge Island, Washington. 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.
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