Artist Bio and Statement

I have long loved and been involved with visual imagery. I majored in art history as an undergraduate, did several years of graduate studies in the field, and served for a number of years as picture editor for an art encyclopedia in New York City. I subsequently earned a Ph.D. in psychology, where I continued to explore areas related to art and imagery, focusing on the psychology of art, visual thinking, and the study of dream imagery.

In the studio arts, I have studied traditional Japanese woodcut printing with master printmaker Ansei Uchima, and with artists Robert Carsten and Virginia McNeice. I am an associate member of the Pastel Society of America.

Juried exhibits include the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, VT, the National Northeast Pastel Exhibit in Old Forge, NY and the Vermont Pastel Society. Solo exhibits include the Martha Canfield Library in Arlington, Vermont and The Dorset Theater, Dorset, Vermont. In 2015 I was honored that my work Battenkill Mist was awarded Best in Show at the Vermont Pastel Society exhibit at the Southern Vermont Art Center.

I am very drawn to the medium of pastel. The pure pigments with minimal amounts of binder create a crystalline structure that reflects and refracts the light, resulting in a unique luminosity. And as the pastel itself is the “brush,” the process provides an immediate, tactile experience which I very much enjoy.

The landscape is a frequent subject of my work in pastel. Although nature is my inspiration, I am not primarily interested in realism, but rather in representing what has moved me about a particular scene and how to translate this feeling into line and color.

website: ellenquestel.com

email: [email protected]