Artist Bio or Résumé
Ellen Hardy has made her living as a graphic designer and photographer but has always maintained a studio to oil paint. Hardy pursued her love of the arts at Garland Junior College (whose records are now with Simmons College) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
The theme of her work started with freedom—and how important that is for a woman, an American and as a human. To represent freedom she has always had a connection to birds, the sky, and the panorama landscape. Wide open spaces, peaceful landscapes, big and interesting skies have occupied her energy in both photography and oil painting.
Primarily a painter Hardy has done substantial work in photography, including “color photograms” as well as high-quality black and white silver prints taken with an antique camera. Her recent exploration delves into the nexus of where earth meets the sky, the sky being a recurrent theme in her work. Having spent a great deal of time in scouting she has brought nature into much of her work. Her painting could be classified, as transcendental abstraction with an emphasis on creating that moment in nature where all you can do is “exhale” to take in the wonder of the moment. To have mindfulness is to be in the present and to see her night sky paintings with shooting stars brings you there. And she has always felt connected to the aurora borealis (her first art prize at the age of 9) and its wonder in the night sky. Her largest body of work to date is about the auroras and the night sky.
