Ellie was born, raised and educated in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in a section of Baltimore known as Pimlico. She lived five blocks from the Pimlico Racetrack. Her father worked at the track, thus Ellie loved watching the exercise riders and jockeys train for upcoming races. As a young girl she loved visiting the stables with her sketchbook to draw the horses and the hounds. The love of drawing and painting animals and the people who work with animals has always been a part of her artistry.
To this day Ellie loves drawing and painting people, animals, and the world in which we live. Now as a resident of Harford County – home to many horse farms, rivers and waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay, her artwork includes plein air landscape paintings. This love of painting has led Ellie to register for as many plein air events held in the MidAtlantic region as possible.
Ellie has a B.F.A. in painting and drawing from Maryland Institute College of Art and a Master of Art in Teaching in museum education from George Washington University.
Commendations and certificates of appreciation include recognition from Animal Rescue Organizations, the City of Baltimore, and the State of Maryland for her artistic contributions. Recognition and inclusion into the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center exhibit on “Creative Women of Maryland.” Currently, she is a member of Harford County Artists Association, Arts by the Bay Gallery, Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association.
As a way to give back to the community, Ellie has coordinated art exhibits that highlighted the creativeness of Maryland Women for the Maryland Women’s Center. She has coordinated exhibits of local artists for the World Trade Center in Baltimore, Maryland. For two years she coordinated an Artists’ Studio Tour for member Artists of the Association. She is now working with the Havre de Grace Arts Collective on developing virtual workshops for artists and Arts By the Bay painting workshops for those who want to improve their artistic skills.
Her commissions include views of the Inner Harbor for Johns Hopkins Bayview’s Mason Lord Building, Mural for Patapsco United Methodist Church, Sanctuary Painting for Zion United Church of Christ, and pastel and oil portraits of many beloved family pet as well as portraits of children and adults. She has received portrait commission from Oslo, Norway to California,
I love painting in oil and pastel, and I can be found during the Spring, Summer and Fall doing Plein Air paintings at various locations throughout the MidAtlantic region. My aim is to capture the essence, the atmosphere and feeling of the environment that surrounds me. It’s that moment in time, a feeling that happens during plein air painting that is elusive. Basically, I want to tell a story about what I am seeing and how important our world is to who we are.
I start by looking at what surrounds me. I grew up in Maryland and have seen many changes to our environment and the ecology over the years. So, I want to reveal the beauty, the serenity and render the importance of our environment that inspires me.
This is the depicting the beauty that is our world. It is showing how taking care of our world is important as seen through my eyes – the artist. The example of this is Maryland Natural Resources waterway restoration project. We are currently being hit by hundred-year storms almost yearly that are tearing down trees, eroding the soil and flooding areas over and over again. The simple act of restoring a stream or run alleviates some of the flooding. But it has other effects. Native plants and wildlife return to the area. Nothing is so wonderful than to be painting and hear the songs of birds; see wildlife peeking out through the wooded areas. Therefore, I am inspired to paint.
Ellie can be reached at her e-mail: ellie@artsdtryon.com or 410-790-7889
Her work can be found at the Arts by the Bay Gallery, 307 St. John Street, Havre de Grace, MD
