Ellen Snyder Di Piazza
Photography was my first love. After a year of study using a 4x5 studio camera, I was happy to go back to a 35mm SLR. Later I studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Besides landscapes, I was most interested in portraits. Years of photographing people have helped by giving me an intuitive understanding of facial expressions.
I learned perspective by sketching buildings in the city, added figures in motion in pencil or ink or occasionally brushed directly in watercolor. The way people move is as distinctive as their facial expressions.
After I moved to the Suncoast the beach enticed me to paint the sky. When the moon is full it drops into the water just before dawn. I brushed glorious clouds as the sun rose. Sometimes there's fog, or an approaching storm. Herons come over to my paints and study my sketches while I swim.
Pen Women, aka the National League of American Pen Women, a group of artists, writers and musicians that started in 1897. This photo was taken at a demo during an art show at the Dancing Crane Gallery in Bradenton, FL.
The Manatee Community Concert Band put on some great concerts this past season. I was in the flute section. It was great fun. (also a lot of work!) We even got to play on the beach!
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