December /January - Guest Artist: Ellen Kaiden

“I am drawn to watercolor as a medium because it is spontaneous and uncontrollable. The thought that you can capture motion and color in water adds to the medium’s excitement. My paintings are metaphors and are full of life and movement.”

I create watercolors that have an architectural but vitreous quality. Kathleen Bernhardt of Corporate Art Source, Chicago, and Kathleen Bernhardt Gallery, Sarasota, FL said that “I am to watercolor what Dale Chihuly is to glass blowing, that by taking a small object and giving it scale and attitude, create something uniquely my own.”
Every time I pick a subject to paint, I enjoy finding its form and ultimately its sensuality. I think I would call my style ”Idealized Realism”. My paintings are life affirming and joyful and reflect my never-ending awe and interest in nature and the miracles surround me every day.
My paintings are Metaphors, NOT JUST PRETTY FLOWERS. I recently have been painting in the series, Lady Paints the Blues, Environment, Women's Voices,The Secret Lives of Sunflowers, and my Ukrainian series.I work in a technique called “Wet on Wet”. Little by little, layer on layer I create a sense of depth and mystery carefully directing the viewer’s eye to where I want it to go. I believe Watercolor is an underrated and complex medium and it is my form of meditation, as I paint I become a conduit for good karma.

The artist attended Philadelphia College of Art and studied painting with Will Barnet. Additional education included private study with Herbie Rose in Sarasota, Florida and Johanna Salomon in Bergen County, New Jersey. Ellen also has studied at Beaux Arts, Paris, France, the Berkshire Art Center (formerly IS 183) in Lenox, Massachusetts, the Art Students League and the New School, both in N.Y.C.