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July Issue 2003
Summit One Gallery in Highlands, NC, Offers Works by Elizabeth Ellison
Paintings of the
Song Catcher: Elizabeth Ellison
is to open at Summit One Gallery in Highlands, NC, on July 26
and will continue through Aug. 27, 2003.
"Elizabeth Ellison begins each painting with a decision about
colors and a few, simple little lines. Her spirit seems to blend
like a watercolor wash into the world which she lives. The resulting
vision is such a fusion of the artist's mind with the natural
world that it startles," writes Tina Benson (Ft. Pierce,
FL, Tribune).
Ellison's studio is
located in the old Clampitt Hardware building on the town square
in Bryson City, NC. She is a native of Milton, NC, and is of Occaneechi
Indian decent. She and her husband, George, have resided in the
Great Smokies regions of Western North Carolina since the early
1970's.
Having exhibited and sold widely throughout the US for more than
25 years, Ellison also teaches week-long workshops at the John
C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, in watercolor painting
and paper making from plant fiber. Utilizing both traditional
and oriental techniques and sometimes employing American
Indian motifs Ellison depicts the varied wildflowers, animals,
and human inhabitants and landscapes of the Smokies region. Elizabeth
Ellison Watercolors was selected for inclusion in Foder's
Guide to the National Parks and Seashores of the East (1994).
In addition to painting on commercial paper stock, she gathers and processes native Appalachian plants to make handmade papers. Black willow, mulberry, cattail, papyrus, rush, iris, wisteria, yucca, raspberry and blackberry are some of the plant fibers she has experimented with and incorporated into paintings.
Ellison's pen and ink drawings and watercolor washes have illustrated the work of her husband, writer/naturalist George Ellison, and others in various publications, including Asheville Citizen-Times, Blue Ridge Outdoors, Outdoor Traveler, Friends of Wildlife, The Journal of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, High Vista and Chinquapin: The Newsletter of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society.
She is a catalogue cover artist for Niche Gardens in Chapel, NC, an award-winning nursery that specializes in the propagation of native plants. Ellison is also a field trip leader for the Landscaping with Native Plants Conference each July hosted by Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC.
Ellison was contracted to create the paintings for the film, The Song Catcher, a turn of the century story of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. A local, Bryson City resident, was a scene locater for a number of movie producers and mentioned Ellison's work to the director of The Song Catcher. Soon after that the director and the cinematographer were in Ellison's studio selecting paintings to be used in the movie. In the movie the paintings were to have been painted by the character, Alice, a young woman with several children and abused by her husband in the rural regions of the Appalachian Mountains. Even though her life was desperate, she saw the beauty and peace in the mountains, which she conveyed through her paintings. Ellison's paintings convey this same beauty and peace. Some of Ellison's illustrations of birds were also used in the movie to be part of Alice's portfolio. She also had to paint one painting on location and she painted Alice's cabin, to get a feel for things. To help her capture Alice's spirit, Ellison kept an illustrated journal made of handmade papers. This journal is featured in a Lark Press book, The Decorated Page, by Gwen Diehn (professor at Warren Wilson College).
Ellison says of her
art and life, "We live back in the mountains. Much of my
work reflects that in one way or another. That is, it's the natural
world sometimes a very wild one, as opposed to the cultivated
world that often gets depicted. I paint as much of it as
I can as my way of coming to terms with that world the wildflowers,
the birds, the trees, the mountains. The Eastern painters are
the ones I admire. They're always searching for the emotional
context. They're always pointing toward the abstract without being
abstract. There's a soft music in their work if you take time
to listen".
Ellison will also be the featured artist at Wolfgang's on Main
for the "Evening of Fine Art, Fine Wine & Fine Dining'
series on July 28. The "Evening of Fine Art, Fine Wine &
Fine Dining" occurs every Mon. evening at Wolfgang's featuring
an artist and their work, music, a wine tasting by some of the
country's premiere wineries, and fine dining by Chef Wolfgang.
The evening is cosponsored by Summit One Gallery and Wolfgang's
on Main. For further information or reservations call 828/526-2673
or 828/526-3807.
For more information
check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at
828/526-2673 or email to (summitonegallery@aol.com).
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