Ellie Wilson

Ellie Wilson was born in Utah and grew up in the Wasatch Mountains. “When I was 8 years old my parents put me in drawing classes and I fell in love with the creative process. As I grew up, my love for art increased and I experimented with new mediums and different techniques. In High School one of my teachers introduced me to oil painting, which has become my favorite medium. As I learned how to paint I did not know how to use a pallet to premix colors, so I would squeeze the pure pigment onto my brush and mix my colors together on the canvas. Doing that taught me a lot about color relationships, and now I do all of my paintings from a limited pallet using only red, yellow, and blue, with white to adjust the value. I started landscape painting when one of my professors at Brigham Young University invited me and some other students to go plein air painting. Standing in the open air with the mountains surrounding me and a brush in my hand just felt right, so I kept on going out and fell in love. To be outside in a beautiful place, painting my surroundings, brings me so much joy. Because it is so important to capture the light in nature, all of my landscapes begin as plein air studies. In 2015, I was accepted to go on a one-on-one summer internship with Scott Christensen, one of my biggest influences. As I studied with him in Idaho I gained a greater understanding of value, edge control, composition, and many other fundamental art elements. Currently, I live in Utah with my husband and will receive my Bachelors in Fine Arts from Brigham Young University in April, 2016.”