Ellen ORSECK
Artist Statement
I am a narrative painter who explores the relationship between realism and abstraction as an outward expression of an inner metaphoric meaning. As a storyteller in paint, I seek out the epic nature of the common place in water, weather, and the objects that permeate everyday life.
Whether I am painting fully-clothed-figures floating underwater, layers of pattern, scenes from a café, or turbulent weather, my subjects are characters in a narrative that allows me to find the interplay between beauty and meaning.
Lucky for me that artists such as John Singer Sargent, Karen Gunderson, Edward Hopper, Vincent Van Gogh, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam and Richard Diebenkorn explored the landscape and weather with rich brush marks and vibrant paint. Many photo-realist artists have inspired my fascination with café culture and the objects connected with food and drink. I look to Wayne Thiebaud, Ralph Goings, William Bailey and Janet Fish for insight. Various painterly approaches to water, portraiture, pattern and the figure have been shaped by Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Alice Neel, Pierre Bonnard,Eric Fischl and Joaquin Sorolla. They all speak to me.
My decision to opt for watercolor, acrylic, oil or mixed media for an artwork depends on the nature of the subject. The figure in water often speaks to me in oil allowing more subtle blending of flesh tones and shading. Habitually, my first pass is an acrylic underpainting of charcoal and acrylic medium. I will layer oil on the surface of the acrylic underpainting if the blending and layering need more translucency. As to what to paint on, many substrates work well, but my preferred painting surface is a smooth gessoed hardboard, followed by canvas, paper, cardboard, metal and Plexi-glass.
In contrast to the opacity of oil and acrylic paint, watercolor adds an immediacy and delicacy that are so very different. Translucent and reflective objects benefit from the luminosity and white of the watercolor paper. Given those parameters, it is not uncommon for me to experiment and paint the very same subject with different media to see what works best.
What I keep coming back to in any media is the subject of water. Something magical happens when a body is immersed in water, or an object is reflecting light. Form and shape are transformed by the fluid nature of water and the refraction of light. Limbs and solid objects become fluid and color flows with the fluid motion of water and light. What is recognizable becomes abstracted, altered. The ripples of light, playing on objects and people, are as significant to me visually as the entire shape of the subject. I gravitate toward the patterns found in light and shadow as well as the patterns found in fabric and nature to help me tell a personal story.
