About the artist
ABOUT THE ARTIST Ellen Stockdale-Wolfe is a New York City painter and photographer. Inspired by her Sicilian stonemason grandfather who worked his way through law school by carving the Gettysburg address in the Lincoln Memorial, Ellen began painting and worked her way through college and graduate school. She took some studio art courses at the Columbia University School of the Arts while at Barnard College where she majored in art history.
She worked as an art cataloger for 30 years at Butler Library at Columbia University, the Frick Art Reference Library, and The New York Historical Society. In 2000 Ellen stopped full-time library work to pursue study of the ancient healing art of Reiki. In 2002 she and her husband found a converted barn in upstate New York. The beauty of the farms and wetlands and wildlife of Dutchess County inspired Ellen to devote herself fully to painting and photography, while writing nature columns for the now defunct Taconic Press. She tries to reflect the majesty of this natural environment so it might be preserved from development and urban sprawl. And attempts to capture the "soul" of animals on film, to portray their emotions with the hope that this might sensitize viewers to animal rights issues. Ellen has exhibited in New York City and in upstate New York. Though all her early paintings were destroyed or lost, many of her photographs are in private and public collections across the United States. Inpired by the greats: Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Thomas Hart Benton and other artists, she continues her exploration into nature, using liquid watercolors, a 30+ year old Nikon F, a point and shoot, and her newest challenge, a digital camera.