Ellen has been a California resident for 20 years but grew up outside of Boston surrounded by relatives who were artists. After earning a B.S. in Business and a minor in Art History from Syracuse University, she then began her career in finance & venture capital. It wasn’t until her two children were older that she returned to her love of art and art history. In 2010, she was introduced to plein air painting and started taking classes and & attending workshops.

Ellen works primarily in oils, studying landscape and marine subjects on location. Thus allowing her to be outdoors, taking in the nuances, beauty and diversity of Northern California. True enjoyment comes from painting the marshlands and highlighting areas along the Pacific Coast, capturing the light as it spreads across a scene.

"I strive for my paintings to engage the viewer and evoke a sense of connection, create a stillness that transports the onlooker to a tranquil space. Each painting is unique and an expression of that mood or energy expressed at that time." -Ellen Howard

Ellen has been juried into 107th, 108th & 109th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, California Art Club and the American Impressionist Society’s Small works exhibition in 2018, “Best of America” NOAPS national exhibitions 2016, 2017. Ellen was a featured artist in the Mendocino Art Center’s Mendocino Open Paint Out (MOPO) in 2016 and 2018 and won “Best Water Scene” in MOPO in 2017. She has also received Honorable Mentions from the Frank Bette Paint Out, the Capitola Paint Out, and the Monterey Bay Plein Air Artists (MBPAA) in 2018. She was one of 19 artists selected for the “Northern California Impressionism” exhibition at Peninsula Museum of Art.

Ellen had two “solo exhibitions” in 2019 – at the Mendocino Art Center in July 2019 and the Peninsula Museum of Art in September 2019. Ellen’s work has been showcased in Plein Air Magazine and American Art Collectors magazine. Several of her articles have been published by Outdoor Painter and Oil Painters of America.

You can visit Ellen's website to view more of her work here.

Watch our Pandemic Artwork Stories conversation with Ellen here.