Dennis Ellman
Water media, acrylic and oil paintings

Born in Los Angeles in 1947, I began to doodle immediately and have not stopped since. In kindergarten I gained peer recognition for my lamb collage with its three black hooves and a pink one amid a wild smudge of cotton. In first grade, my teacher expressed concern to my parents about a dark watercolor of a dead tree I painted.

In college at San Diego State University, I discovered poetry and by my junior year was publishing poetry in national publications of some renown. This earned me a fellowship to the University of California, Irvine's graduate program in creative writing, where I earned my MFA.

After Irvine, over a span of 14 years, I taught poetry and creative writing at such institutions as San Diego State University and Santa Monica College.

In 1986, I left teaching and applied my artistic bent to becoming a commercial artist and marketing specialist. I founded a marketing/public relations agency, Beck Ellman Heald, in 1986. I have lived in San Diego since 1980 and I currently reside in Carmel Valley, just East of Del Mar, with my wife Beverly. We have three children and two grandchildren.

In addition to private and corporate ownership, my art has appeared in galleries in San Diego, Palm Desert, Santa Cruz and Hawaii.

Website: ellmanart.com

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Artist's Statement

I am intrigued with the shape, movement, beauty and oddity of the primitive human form and how it relates to its real and imagined environment. I have recorded my impressions in writing and visual art since I was a child growing up in Los Angeles. I scribble and sketch incessantly. Everything and everyone influences me. I learn in increments measured by breath.

Life is rich and full of texture and color, so naturally, texture and color play an enormous role in my painted works. I am constantly discovering new ways to portray elements of life with various textural mediums and new color combinations. The process is one that is full of discovery.