By Susan D. Brandenburg
Ellen Diamond’s book, “Chasing Color,” is a celebration of her long and fruitful journey on this earth. The artist’s fabulous life and legacy in the artworld are beautifully illustrated on each page. Her early paintings, European landscapes, gardens, beaches, waterways, flowers, trees, towns, and bridges leap from the pages, thrilling the senses and satisfying the soul.
“Like my life, this book has been a labor of love,” says Diamond, whose many-faceted existence has captured the hearts of art-lovers everywhere as well as those of her students, her patrons, and her progeny. Her book is lovingly dedicated to her late husband, Jay, and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. It is her hope that the next generation will gain an understanding of the family that came before them and be inspired by the art, the teaching, and the legacy of love and joy that is her story.
“My love affair with art began as a young child,” says Diamond, whose father, Ben Clements, was a highly acclaimed artist in Brooklyn, New York. “I sat at my father’s side, with an array of colorful crayons, creating art at my own tiny easel. Now, my father’s self-portrait is on the wall of my studio, and I feel him watching over me each morning as I paint at my easel.”
Her upbringing provided a unique artistic training ground, both as a regular visitor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and other New York centers of art, and as a graduate of New York University with degrees in fine art and education.
