ElleCoyote Process

Painting process posts by Ellen McCormick Martens

Thursday, March 09, 2023

24x24, acrylic and paper on wood panel. This refers to the murky undercurrents in families when secrets are kept, by each generation.

Ellen McCormick Martens: Houston, Texas, United States; I do abstract collage, mostly using paper that I paint and print myself. I also use stencils and my own carved rubber stamps. I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and decided to be an artist at age 12. I began to paint full-time in 1996, after working as a computer typesetter for 16 years. At first I did a lot of brightly-colored landscapes with flattened shapes and space. I love light through trees, and painted a lot of that subject. You can see some of this work on my older blog, ellenmccormickmartens.blogspot.com. From bright, flat landscapes I moved on to beaded collage portraits of myself and my family, then to geometric zodiac paintings, and on to the abstract collage work I am currently creating. I hope that my spirit comes through my work. I believe that each human being is immortal, incarnated many times, and that we keep learning and perfecting ourselves.