We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ellen Koment. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ellen below.

Ellen , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

For many years I have had an amazing collector, Dr Jack Leissring, who has over 200 of my paintings, and has helped me in so many ways. When I was given a Wurlitzer Foundation residency grant, he bought some paintings so that I would have the money to go. The gift of New Mexico. When I had cancer, he bought paintings and sent me money every month for a year, and many other times. But recently he has put out a book of all the paintings in his collection.. “Ellen Koment, The Internal as External”, and yes he understands who I am and why I do what I do. That painting is always a physical manifestation of who you are, and what you believe.

Ellen , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

There is so much to tell, where to begin? I grew up in Coney Island, in a building owned by my Grandfather, and always have had a family that supported the arts., and supported what I do. I went to the HS of Music and Art in NYC, and my first painting ever seen, because I won a contest, was on a poster in the NYC Subway. From there to Cooper Union Art School, and then finally to Graduate School at UC Berkeley.

California brought me a very new life, where light and the landscape were always important. Beyond that I traveled the world, and all that I saw became part of my life, and then, part of my painting. Because through all that I did, painting was always the constant! Oil painting, acrylic painting, shows in galleries and museums. Forty eight shows in all, starting with the “New Painters” show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1968.

And then, one day, in my studio in San Francisco, someone gave me a piece of WAX, and somehow I began exploring the world of ENCAUSTIC. Very little information available then, but I did what I could, and kept painting! My first show in Portland, OR in 1991.

Ten years after a residency grant at Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, I did finally move to New Mexico, and here I began teaching Encaustic Workshops, including twice in Spain, with people coming from all over the world to study with me. More than a thousand people have studied encaustic with me, and now that we are in the small and beautiful historic town of Las Vegas, NM, I do small and private workshops here.

BUT always, regardless of all that life has given me, I keep painting, and showing my work as well, in Santa Fe, and around the country. And recently a collector of mine in CA did a book of the over 200 paintings in his collection, and now, I am working on a book as well. (see photos)

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

My whole life has been about what I do as an artist. Regardless of many ups and downs that life brings us, painting is my constant. So I have traveled the world, lost a husband, moved to different places, and yet, the painting continues. It is the song I sing, and if the language changes, the spirit doesn’t! I love color, I love form, I love the movement of form, and I know that the materials are less important than your spirit! From oil to watercolor, to wax, it is all about the spirit that guides it, and the spirit that feeds me as well.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

To understand that beyond all else, it is a way of life, that the stories we tell, the paintings we make are all about who we are. They are how we understand ourselves. So there is no other story but the one that we create, and no matter how many obstacle life creates, it is the most important journey. It is the huge constant in your life, as life’s adventures come and go, good and bad. Most important, to continue to create and to know that it is the story that you tell.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ellenkomentart.com www.nmencausticworkshops.com
• Instagram: @ellenkomentstudio
• Facebook: ellenkomentpaintings.com ellenkoment.com encausticworkshops.com
• Youtube: ellen koment encaustic painting workshops part 1&2, and several more