Ellen Willis Art is Life - Life is Art

I grew up in Corsicana, Texas and have loved art since I was a little girl. I fell in love with art history through looking at art books at my grandmother’s house. I used to get a flashlight and hide under the covers pouring over those books until the wee hours of the morning.
I continued that love of art history when I went to college at SMU. I took as many art history classes as possible under a fabulous teacher named, Mrs. Vernon.
As much as I admired art, I didn’t think I could create it because I thought it was just a gift that one had or did not have. When my three children were all school age, I heard about an art teacher in Austin that could teach anyone to draw. I began to study with Elizabeth Locke and was amazed that I was beginning to actually create art.
I think God gave me the desire to continue to love and study art. I have a wonderful resource because I live so close to the Fredericksburg Artist School. I have had the privilege of studying with many wonderful artists. I studied figurative work under: Carolyn Anderson, Bye Bitney, John Cosby, Greg Kreutz, Robert Johnson, William Kalwick, Huihan Lieu, Sherrie Mc Graw, C.W. Mundy, Peggy Kroll Roberts, Hon Nian Zhang, and most recently under Scott Burdick and his wife, Susan Lyon.
I studied landscape with John Budicin, Brian Blood, Mark Farina, Chuck Rawle, and Lorenzo Chavez. I owe each of these artists a great debt of gratitude.
Through my studies, I have been introduced to many different styles and palettes. I have learned that there are many valid and interesting ways to approach creating fine art but each of these artists stress the same underlying fundamentals. It is up to the individual artist to practice and find his own voice. I am on that journey. Please explore my work and let me know what you think.