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Continuing to work on portrait of Tom and Buck.  Don't worry Tom, you'll be smiling, soon.  

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Mugsy and Lexi
5" x 5"
Acrylics on Canvas
Gift to John Willson





Here's a sketch of how I imagine St.Denis would have looked when he was commandant at Ft. St. Jean Baptiste in Natchitoches, LA in the mid-1700s.  It was fun to research his uniform at the Fort in Natchitoches!  The folks there were very helpful.  He was a marine in the French military so we know how he would have dressed.  Although there is folklore about his size, body tattoos, etc. there is no drawing or painting of him so I used the manikin at the Fort as an inspiration for his face, hair, etc.

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Latest pet portrait ornament.
4" x 4"; acrylics
$50

Friday, November 22, 2019


Some close-up views of the snow village in the window at Tres Bien Antiques this year!

Henry builds the platform and hooks up the electricity for the lights.  I set up the village.



Used hot glue to make waterfall effect.
Henry extended the base so the village could be wider.
Another waterfall.


Wednesday, November 20, 2019

This is an abstract painting of mine on an 18" x 18" tote bag (front, back, and sides).
$30.00

Available at:

Tres Bien Antiques and Resale
132 Rue St. Denis,
Natchitoches, LA 71457




What I've been up to since September:

Colorado
16 x 20
Acrylics on canvas
Crappie Wedding Gift
12 x 7
Acrylics on wood

Light My Fire
45 rpm record
Acrylics on Vinyl

Rose Garden
45 rpm record
Acrylics on vinyl


Louisiana Cypress Tree Troll
7"
Mixed Media
Louisiana Cypress Tree Troll
and Cicada Shell

Louisiana Cypress Tree Trolls
Close-up of Cicada
Acrylics



Gingerbread Man
3 ' x 3'
acrylics on plywood

Gingerbread Pals
3' x 4'
Acrylics on plywood



Shell ornaments
Acrylics on shells
Shell Ornaments
Acrylic Inks on shells
Christmas Village, 2019
Tres Bien Antiques
132 Rue St. Denis
Natchitoches, Louisiana



Tuesday, August 6, 2019



As I am in the final week of Art2life CVP 2019, here are some of my favorite paintings done on this course so far.  I wish I could place a photo of the original painting beside each of these.  Should have put numbers on the backs of them!!!!  My last blog does show an early version of one of these.

 Each one is 12" x 12", acrylics on wood, $250.00.

All 18 paintings will be shown  in an exhibition coming soon.  Watch this space and my FB page, Ellen Howell Paintings.


No. 1


No. 2.


No. 3


No. 4


No. 5


No. 6


It's been months since I posted!!  But I've got some interesting work to share today.  I'm in the final week of a 12 week online art class, Art2life CVP 2019, by Nicholas Wilton.  It has been an excellent course.  Well, that's really an understatement.  As far as my artwork goes it has been incredible.  It plugged all the gaps in my art education and extended my knowledge and skills tremendously.

It has also impacted my life in a very positive way. 

Here's what I've been up to since February.



16" x 20"
Acrylics on Canvas


July, 2019.  The biggest challenge was getting the sand and the grass to work.  Loved, loved, loved doing these two little girls.  My Art2life CVP class helped tremendously with this.  My daughter gave me constructive feedback, as well.

Art2life Creative Visionary Program 2019

May 9 - August 8, 2019





This is one of the first paintings I did in my Art2life CVP online class.  We began with black and white so that we could learn the basics of design and value.  What a difference this has made in how I think about my work.  I'll be forever grateful to Nicholas Wilton for teaching this and for teaching it the way he and his team did.

Because I worked on so many paintings at a time (8 - 18) I won't share the progression of each one.  Instead, I've chosen the one below because it retains some pretty obviously identifiable characteristics to the end.  You can see the changes I made in it over time as I learned and applied more and more information and skills.


We painted over our black and white paintings using a limited color palette.  The skills we were learning were value and design, the most important skills taught on the course.


Then, we started learning to cover areas of the painting that we didn't love.


In the Color Module we saw how to mix color to create harmony in our paintings.  We  added more color.  There was continued emphasis on loud and quiet conversations in the painting.


Differences in marks became a challenge and an exploration. I analyzed areas of the painting to determine what I liked and  continued to make changes based on the principles I was learning.


More mark-making but more subtle.  A huge piece was added at this point:  glazing.  I learned to use glazing as another way to harmonize the color.


Glazed with a different color, sanded back through layers to get more texture and to retrieve some elements from earlier versions, added collage element and all that's left, now is the sealer and framing.  This piece gives me a feeling of calm and peacefulness.