Ellen Langford

Bio

Ellen Langford is a southern artist.  Native to Mississippi, Langford pursued academic studies in her craft in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and Italy, among other places.   It was in returning to her Deep South home, however, that her work has taken on its recognizable narrative quality.  Though now a full-time artist, Langford also worked for years as a paramedic throughout central Mississippi. She became heavily influenced by the often tender narratives of her patients’ stories, as well as the simple living structures, yards peopled with chickens and dogs of this mostly poor, rural world. As a parent, and owner of chickens and dogs herself, Langford incorporates the tenderness and vulnerability in the movements of animals and people, as well as the joy of life’s adventure. Langford’s painting process, when working in oil or acrylic, involves many 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.  In the past several years, Langford has been on a journey to reduce her own carbon footprint.  Gouache paint, a historical medium used at least since the ancient Egyptians, has been working its way into Langford’s work, offering the possibility to layer and push shapes and spaces, while being an environmentally responsible option for smaller work.   A full-time working artist, Langford sells her work directly and through galleries around the southeast.  She also teaches workshops and gives demonstrations.

Art Education

Art of Provence Plein Air workshop, Spring 2021

SOHO Artist Workshop, New York, NY, August 2012

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

Maine College of Art, Katahdin Wilderness: Painting Workshop, 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 Maine, Stone Coast Writers’ Workshop, August 1989

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