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Ellen Levine-Dodd California Landscape Artist
 Travel has been an inspiration for creating my images. Often
subject matter is found during 'road trips.' where brightly
colored memories, feelings about places I have been, and dreams
of places still ahead become the subject matter of my casein
paintings and digital images.
Throughout my travels I've kept
colored pencil journals and shot thousands of digital images as
a means for capturing my journey. As the scenery slides by the
window of my imagination, I find myself hypnotized by the motion
of the road. I collect images to tell the story of where I've
been. When I get back into the studio I reminisce and paint
stories in color.
I paint wind, heat, the color behind the obvious color. The
hues and harmonies of color, as they appear in nature are
important to me. Color is dependent on so many factors, surface,
shape, and light, which all interact to convey the response the
viewer experiences. For me the color tells the story.
I paint in casein because its matte surface pleases me. It
allows the natural properties of the pigment to reveal itself.
It lends itself to layering, glazing, 'scumbling' and drawing
with colored pencils. It allows for scratching back into the
surface, revealing the hidden layers of the paint below the
immediately visible, like time's layering of one experience over
another. It reminds us that if we look beneath the surface,
below the obvious, there is always so much more to see.
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