ellen langford fine art ARTIST STATEMENT & BIO

Ellen Langford is a painter whose body of work is inspired by landscapes, chance meetings, and the South’s mighty cross-currents. Ellen notices and captures the relationships between the land and its inhabitants – a child with his dog, a clothesline in the breeze, a figure with the landscape. We don’t only see them in her paintings, we feel that joyful connection.

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Langford worked for years as a paramedic in central Mississippi. She became heavily influenced by the often tender narratives of her patients’ stories, as well as the quiet rituals that they incorporate into their lives. As the parent of a young boy herself, and owner of chickens and dogs, Ellen often incorporates children and animals into her compositions as she finds sweetness and vulnerability in their movements, as well as joy and adventure.

Native to Mississippi, Ellen has pursued academic studies in her craft in New York, San Francisco, DC, and Italy, among other places. However, her work took on its recognizable narrative quality when she returned to her home in the Deep South.

Langford’s painting process involves layers of paint, often sanded away and then glazed over, searching for shape and pattern, color, and texture, to build the story worlds her figures inhabit. (Bio courtesy of Betsy-Rose Weiss of the American Folk Art Gallery in Asheville, NC).

EDUCATION

New York Studio School, New York, NY: Drawing Marathon, June 2005

Maine College of Art, Khatadin Wilderness Painting, October 2004

La Escuela Sevilla, la Antigua Guatemala, 1996

San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 1994-1995

Colby College, Waterville, ME, 1990, BA Religion

Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy, spring, 1990

Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC, summer 1989

University of Southern Main, Stone Coast Writers’ Workshop, August 1989

University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, 1987-1988, Studied painting under Jere Allen

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TEACHING WORKSHOPS AND DEMONSTRATIONS

If you are interested in having me lead a workshop or give a talk/demonstration, please email me at contact@ellenlangford.com

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AWARDS

2021 Honored Artist: Mississippi State Committee, National Women in the Arts

2018 Woman of Vision Honoree, Women’s Foundation of Mississippi

COLLECTIONS

University of Mississippi Medical Center Permanent Collection:  Library, Student Union, and Wiser Hospital for Women.

Late Mississippi Senator, Thad Cochran

Vicksburg, MS Mayor Lawrence Leyens

University of Massachusetts Associate Vice-Provost Joan Becker

Former White House and Camp David Interior Designer Joanne Bartlett

Former Chief Sound Engineer at Ford Motor Company, Alex Gorodishen

The Alluvian Hotel, Greenwood, MS

Award-winning journalist Casey Parks, of the New York Times, Glamour Magazine, and the Portland Oregonian

Various Private Collections nationally, as well as Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Thailand, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom

 

NOTABLE EXHIBITIONS

Traveling, Multi-Artist Show, Stennis Flag Themed, Ongoing

Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS.
Gallery Talk/Workshop, 2019

Mississippi State University. Union Gallery, Solo Show, 2019

Haven Gallery Jackson, MS, with Rachel Misenar, 2019

Pearl River Glass Gallery, Jackson, MS. Solo Show, 2018

Museum of the Mississippi Delta, with Lacey Johnson, 2018

E.E. Bass Center, with Bottle Tree Studios, 2018

The Cedars, Jackson, MS, with Scott Cook, 2017

Rosenzweig Arts Center Columbus, MS, Solo Show, 2016

Delta Arts Alliance, Cleveland, MS, Solo Show, 2016

American Folk, Asheville, NC, with Shawn Ireland, 2015

Fischer Gallery, Jackson, MS, Solo Show, 2014

Mississippi Children’s Museum, Solo Show, Visiting Artist, 2013

Mississippi Arts Commission, Solo Show, 2013

Hot Tin Roof Gallery, Memphis, TN, Solo Show, 2012

Doma Gallery, New York, NY, Solo Show, 2011

Turnrow Gallery, Greenwood, MS, with Robin Whitfield, 2010

Wye Mills, Maryland, Artist Residency, 2009