Nov. 15 – Jan. 11, 2020
“Everywhere I go, I go looking for color. Color comes from within, but the subject matter brings it forth and interprets it for the viewer,” explains Ellen Diamond. To experience any of her paintings is to be immersed in color. “To be in Provence, surrounded by their ochres and blues, the intensity of their textiles – I just want to capture that and share it with everyone.”
After painting at home with her father Ben Clements – a professional portrait artist and educator, studying at NYU, and teaching art at every level, Diamond developed her own style, which continues to evolve. The Cultural Center’s fifty-year retrospective of Diamond’s work will trace the arc of her career – from early ’70s Long Island beach scenes influenced by her father’s textural, painterly style, to ’80s semi-abstract and “fractured” images, through more representational ’90s and early 2000s Florida landscapes and travel scenes of southern Europe.
Her paintings are displayed in institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and Fidelity Financial, as well as the homes of many collectors, and she is represented by Hillary Whitaker Gallery at Ponte Vedra Beach, The Vault in San Marco, and Gallery Vibe in Naples, Fl.
“People respond to color and to places they love. And that’s what I love to give them,” she says. Her classes and workshops at The Cultural Center fill up quickly with loyal, enthusiastic students, as do her artists’ trips to The Berkshires and Europe. Diamond’s Chasing Color Retrospective is testament to an artist’s life well lived.
The Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach, 50 Executive Way, 280-0614.