Bellevue Artist Showing

I moved to Washington from Northern California in 1996. The best natural green we could hope for in California was temporary rolling green hills in spring that quickly turned brown and stayed brown through summer and fall.

Lush is the word that best describes my adopted home.

On any given day, Bellevue artist, Ellen B. Cooper, walks the fields, and the marshes, she stands on the shore next to the rivers and the Sound with her canvases, oils, and a deep appreciation for the natural wonder of this lush paradise we call home.

Last Saturday, her "Seasons of the Sound" showing at the Bellevue Library kicked off with a well-attended open house. You can view her work there through May 26th.

She writes:

"On daily walks, I look for compositions or views that strike me. (I love) the unique color harmonies of each season.

My paintings are an ode to the landscape where I live, the Puget Sound Region of the Pacific Northwest. The distant mountains, forests, waterways, and endlessly changing sky, serve as inspiration for my work. I deeply search for the diversity of plants and the color harmonies of each season.

Several months out of the year I join a plein air group ("in the open air") at a local park. This scene provides the material for my larger paintings. The challenge of plein air is to compose on the spot paint, paint quickly and record my impressions.

My goal is to create a sense of space and atmosphere, while also being true to the location. It may be the light, reflections in the water, or shadows across a field that strike me. Or it is the feeling of awe and wonder at the complexity and beauty of the scene before me that I wish to capture."

Ellen's enduring love for nature and for expressing that love through her oils goes back to college and beyond.

"As an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I took classes in studio art and graduated with a BA in Art History. Those classes never left me."

As with many of us, her path was circuitous. For Ellen's next step, she pursued an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley. A business career placed her love of painting on the back burner. But the desire to paint still burned within.

"For several years, I took evening and weekend classes, attended life drawing workshops, and volunteered at the local art museum or galleries.

Upon retirement, I attended the 3-year Contemporary Atelier at Gage Academy of Art, where I refined my skills in the traditions of representational fine art. I was honored with a solo show after the atelier program, and since then my work has been on display at several juried shows."

As a children's book author who began writing seriously at fifty-three and whose first children's novel, Wishes Are Free, was published when I was seventy-five, I can appreciate the gift of retirement, too. It isn't retirement for me. It's a beginning. A reboot of a love of writing I had all of my life, but no time to pursue it.

Kudos to both of us. Both Bellevue residents, both making it happen in the autumn of our lives.

Ellen writes: "My friendships in the art community have been deep and lasting. If my work interests you, I invite you to ask me questions or inquire for more information."

www.ellenbcooper.com

ellenbcooper@outlook.com