“I am drawn to watercolor as a medium because it is spontaneous and uncontrollable. The thought that you can capture motion and color in water adds to the medium’s excitement. My paintings are metaphors and are full of life and movement.”
~ Ellen Kaiden
Ellen creates watercolors that have an architectural but vitreous quality. Kathleen Bernhardt of Corporate Art Source, Chicago, and Kathleen Bernhardt Gallery, Sarasota, FL said that “Ellen Kaiden is to watercolor what Dale Chihuly is to glass blowing, that by taking a small object and giving it scale and attitude, create something uniquely her own.”
“Every time I pick a subject to paint, I enjoy finding its form and ultimately its sensuality. I think I would call my style ‘Idealized Realism’ My paintings are life affirming and joyful and reflect my never-ending awe and interest in nature and the miracles surrounding me every day”.
Ellen’s paintings are Metaphors, NOT JUST PRETTY FLOWERS. Her painting series Lady Paints the Blues, All about Eve,Environment, The Secret Lives of Sunflowers and the Ukrainian series represent this point.
Ellen works in a technique called “Wet on Wet”. Little by little, layer on layer, she creates a sense of depth and mystery, carefully directing the viewer’s eye to where she would like it to go. “I believe Watercolor is an underrated and complex medium and it is my form of mediation, as I paint, I become a conduit for good karma.”
The artist attended Philadelphia College of Art and studied painting with Will Barnet. Additional education included private study with Herbie Rose in Sarasota, Florida and Johanna Salomon in Bergen County, New Jersey. Ellen also has studied at Beaux Arts, Paris, France, the Berkshire Art Center (formerly IS 183) in Lenox, Massachusetts, the Art Students League and the New School, both in N.Y.C.
Ellen is a full-time painter, with studios in Boynton Beach, Florida and the Berkshires in Massachusetts. She was awarded with “Best Water Medium Artist 2023’’in the ADC, “Art Comes Alive” National Juried Show”. This past summer, her work was presented as a nine-piece installation at Canyon Ranch, Lenox. She has been the featured artist in “In Style Magazine” of the Sarasota Herald Tribune in Feb. 2005 and 2009. She is represented by The WIT Gallery in Lenox, MA and Gallery 14 in Vero Beach, FL.
