Ellen Gaube, Essex Art Association Artist of the Month
There’s a graphite drawing of a single branch developing on an easel on Ellen Gaube’s dining room table. “Drawing was my first love,” she says, and the works that she says people call “those sticks” came about because she was attracted to “the austerity of the lone twig and its interesting curves. There’s a rhythm and pattern to the growth of trees that becomes disrupted over time. The fallen or broken limb and its scars really interest me.” Rather than preferring gestural marks, Gaube seeks out the asymmetrical and the analytical, and perhaps that is what leads her to digital painting.
Over the last three years or so, Gaube says, she acquired a craving for color and abstraction. And, she says, “the computer is safer, because it’s hard to paint with cats.” This art was an experiment, at first, and she learned to create vector shapes, so that the ragged edges of pixels would not appear in her larger prints. In “The Epilimnion 2,” above right, the physical world and the digital manipulations easily intertwine (it’s no wonder that she calls her website, www.ellengaube.com , “Natural Simplicity Unveiled").
Ellen Gaube has been a member of Essex Art Association since she and her husband Gary, a retired Rhode Island health care executive, moved here from Woodstock, Connecticut five years ago, and she is a member of our board. She graduated from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and is a member of River Valley Artists and Connecticut Women Artists. Gaube says the best compliment she ever received about her work was when a visitor to an art show that included her drawing “Olympia” moved to the side and leaned over to see if shapes were popping out of the paper. “That got me,” she says. We look forward to seeing her work this summer in our gallery! (Will we lean sideways?).
Ellen Gaube, "Orion," graphite drawing, above left, and "The Epilimnion," digitally manipulated photograph, right
2021 GALLERY REOPENING ANNOUNCEMENT: We are pleased to announce that the gallery will be reopening this spring with four new shows. Moving forward into a new season after the 2020 closure is an exciting endeavor, however, we will have CDC safety measures in place to ensure the health and well being of all. Please continue to visit our website, our Instagram and our Facebook for updates. You may also contact us at essexartct@gmail.com. We look forward to welcoming all of our friends, supporters, and artists to in celebration of our 75th year!