Joel Ellis, Great Lakes Artist
The painters of old painted the idea and not merely the shape. - Hsieh Ho, 5th Century
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Blue Shore, 5 x 7

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Hold On Winter 16 by 20 oil. Painted from a moment at a Lake Michigan harbor with boats moored against a winter sunset. 

The Art of Living With An Artist 

by Helene LaBrecque Ellis (first printed in Healing Garden Journal, September 2010)

     We are tramping through the vast and constantly changing dunes along the coasts of our glorious Lake Michigan, Joel and I.  I am company to the man with the camera.  While casting sand and small stones from my shoes, I listen to him exhalt the intricate dune flowers, or the patterns of wind lines along the sand, the thrill of the trees on the dune horizon shadowing another impressive amber sunset.  To these moments I am humbly grateful to be his companion.

     The pictures come home to a small studio where the artist starts his routine:  a small pot of water heating for tea, a newly prepared canvas placed on the easel.  He may choose a bit of music that will soon be quieted in his mind by the intensity of the upcoming work.  Colors he has been mulling over are arranged on the palette.  He glances at the picture reference from our wonderful walks.  Brushes and palette knives stand up right in their containers on the table near the easel as if alive hoping to be part of this fresh new view flowing out of the artist like the sun pouring over the hills.  Then he begins.  Wide strokes of sky colors, dune forms with small outline reminders of outcrops or pools or dune grasses.  Joel calls this paint sketching.  I leave the room and the man to his work.

     I return to my desk and the space that inspires me, pictures of our children, small handcrafted pottery with pieces of nature draped over the rims, shells, and Joel’s magnificent paintings: Third Coast Dune that swirls actively with brilliant evening colors, Cattail Dance so full of texture you could hear the bees buzzing in the crowd, Hold On – a blue texture painting of boats captured in ice at a west coast harbor in winter. Paintings that grasp the sometimes breathless moments of being there. It is when he comes out of the artist’s studio with a grand and textured expression of our dune walk that gives me pause.  Kissed by the Sun is a cluster of earthly colors patterned across the canvas while a golden orange cast flows down through the painting. This one is mine.  The children know that when I die they may do what they want with these comments on our travels, but for now certain paintings, resting gently against the walls of our tiny home, will remain in this gallery.

     I believe that the everyday prickles of life are made defenseless in this environment. The art of living with this artist is recognizing and appreciating the link between the beauty of the Great Lakes and the unique interpretation from the artist’s hand. Helene Ellis is a Michigan writer with credits in various literary journals.  Joel is a Great Lakes artist www.joelellisart.com