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Ellen Rice shares her inspiration with brush and pen
My most recent painting, a 16" x 20" oil of the back bays of southeastern Delaware. There are no special lighting or photo adjustments in this image. The photo was taken with indirect natural north light.
I've been painting as far back as I can remember. What has motivated me for most of my adult years is a strong desire to share images that bring joy, whether special moments, visions that come in answer to prayer or the way light dances around a beautiful scene or a beautiful expression on someone's face. While I was once an award-winning photojournalist, I think paintings capture so much more.
I work from two studios, one on the third level of my home, where I work on private commissions, and a purposefully built studio in a separate building on my property where I work on all of my other paintings, sign and wrap my prints, and welcome guests for Open Studios a few scheduled days a week and by appointment.
My new ground-level studio is in such a peaceful setting, with a 16-foot-wide expanse of north-facing floor to ceiling windows and sliding glass doors that overlook the eastern side of southern Delaware's 150-acre James Farm Ecological Preserve.
About a mile inland from the Atlantic Ocean, it's close enough that I can hear waves breaking when a breeze is coming from the east and during storms no matter the direction the winds come from. The sound obviously inspires a lot of my work. It's often my muse.
My studio and gallery showroom and these website pages provide ways for you to explore my ongoing work, completed originals, and archival giclee reproductions that are now found in homes and corporate and government collections in 18 countries on four continents.
Please note when viewing paintings on this website that digital images viewed on almost any mobile device or computer monitor cannot accurately or adequately represent the nuances of colors, depth and luminescence of these paintings. They are always best viewed in person when possible, though I do have people purchase originals via these images with complete satisfaction.
I hope you'll visit my studio in person when in the area. Its location, about 2 miles and just three turns from Coastal Highway on quiet roads, makes it easy to bypass much of the beach traffic.
Click on the "Visit the Studio, Where & When" page for directions and a link to a live Google map. To arrange a consultation about a portrait or other commissioned work, or to come on days that are not scheduled for Open Studios, please call the studio at (302) 539-3405 and we'll do our best to accomodate you.
“One of Delaware’s Most Collectible Artists” ~ Delaware Beach Life Magazine “Best Artist, Sussex County, Delaware”~ Coastal Style Magazine “PNC Artist of the Year”~ commission award of PNC Financial “One of Delaware’s Three Best Beach Artists”~ Delaware Today Magazine "One of the Top 10 Must See Galleries and Museums in Delaware” ~ The Culture Trip Beebe HealthCare Commission Awardfeatured artist, South Coastal Delaware Great American Paint-In"artist Representing the State of Delaware