Passion for painting
Ellen Martin returns to her easel after raising her family.
P. E. I. artist Ellen Martin never has to look far for inspiration.
That’s because her ideas for paintings come from nearby — her own memories, as well as the florals and landscape of P. E. I.
For example, To the Cottage, which depicts a treelined lane leading to a house next to blue water, is an image Martin says she will never forget.
“It was a cottage I went to when I was 10 years old. It was turquoise and had checkerboard windows with a little bird’s nest outside. It was a very happy place for me. So I when walked down that lane for the first time in many, many years I felt like I was 10 years old,” says Martin, who resides in Summerside.
Another painting, simply entitled Geraniums, pays tribute to one of her favourite houseplants.
“It’s one of my newer paintings. I like the nice mixture of colours, bright red and various shades of green. I like geraniums because they are old- fashioned plants,” says Martin of the two pieces which are among 13 featured in From Ellen’s Easel, the current Sixty Days of Fame Exhibit, underway at the MacNaught History Centre in Summerside.
On another wall, Path of the Lupine Lady takes the viewer down to the shore on a red dirt road, past a pine grove and a profusion of pink and purple flowers and a cluster of tiny cottages.
“It’s quintessential P. E. I. I’m obsessed by red clay roads. I just love the colour. I’m also very much a water person. I just find it a peaceful place to be,” says the painter, pointing to the dazzling view of Malpeque Bay.
While Martin has spent her life taking solace in art, it’s only recently that she’s taken her painting seriously.
“This is my first art show. It’s a big leap for me,” says Martin who attended the commercial design program at Holland College after high school but changed her career path.
“I felt I needed to make a living so I went into nursing,” says Martin, who graduated from the P. E. I. School of Nursing in 1983.
Then her life got very, very busy.
“I got married in 1984 .... Then I had two children and raising them took a lot of my energy,” says Martin who put her paint brushes aside until her youngest daughter was 10.