Ellen Priest

Philadelphia-area abstract painter Ellen Priest has used jazz as the subject for her layered, collaged paintings since 1990. Most recently, she completed a four-year body of work titled, “Jazz: Edward Simon’s ‘Venezuelan Suite’ #1-23.” Priest has received two Pollock-Krasner... [more]

 

Philadelphia-area abstract painter Ellen Priest has used jazz as the subject for her layered, collaged paintings since 1990.  Most recently, she completed a four-year body of work titled, “Jazz: Edward Simon’s ‘Venezuelan Suite’ #1-23.”   Priest has received two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Awards.  Her first solo museum exhibition was presented by the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in 2007.

Priest’s inspiration comes from surprisingly diverse sources.  1) Life-long visual art influences include Cezanne’s late watercolors, Matisse’s color and compositional structure, and Abstract Expressionism, especially the paintings of Willem De Kooning and Joan Mitchell.  2) The rhythmic and harmonic structures in jazz and related African and Latin American music.  3) Her athletic pursuits, since her paintings are really about movement.  Priest’s favorite sports are “balance sports,” where motion depends on weight and balance thrown off-center, often in response to terrain, like skiing. 

 

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