“My paintings begin with a glimpse of possibility. I have a sense of what I want and then feel my way. As my boundaries of reality disappear, uncensored spontaneity takes over and I enter my world of dreams.
My journey into fantasy is open-ended; anything can happen. My fleeting images undulate simultaneously on varied surfaces. Using a combination of acrylic paints, watercolor, and iridescent inks, I create a complex color spectrum. “
– Ellen Palestrant
About Ellen
Media & Interviews
On Reno Tahoe Tonight
Ellen discusses creativity and inspirations with fellow writer/artist Jill Glenn and show host Oliver X. You can read about both Jill and Oliver in CONVERSATIONS ABOUT CREATIVITY.
On Arizona Originals
Ellen discusses creativity, perfectionism, balancing the practical with the possible, and the importance of taking action and moving forward.
You can see the full post here.
“An insight into the spirit and beautiful mind of author-artist Ellen Palestrant and her stunningly original collector coffee table art book The World of Glimpse … the full frontal sensory barrage is unlike anything I’ve encountered outside of Walt Disney’s Fantasia – yet this is a book!”
– Oliver X, Reno Tahoe Tonight Magazine
More Reviews
From Ellen’s Blog
Think Emerald
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere. -Albert Schweitzer I love green and use its various hues quite frequently in my paintings. Green features at times in my writings, too, and certainly in my perceptions. I feel awed by the diversity of how the...
THINK EARTH COLORS
The mountains are calling and I must go. John Muir Mountains call to us in different ways: We might want to climb them, write about them, photograph or film them or simply contemplate their majesty, cragginess and the changing hues as the hours pass. We might also be...
THINK BLACK & WHITE
There is a wide, yawning black infinity. In every direction, the extension is endless; the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immortal. Where light exists, it is pure, blazing, fierce; but light exists almost nowhere, and the blackness itself is...
Quotes Reviews
When Ellen Palestrant rang and said she had a short novel and some stories I readily agreed to read them. To my delight the novel was a very original piece of writing and the few short stories were little jewels. As I have become an avid jogger and Comrades runner, I found the story entitled ‘Koptoe‘ a most appropriate one with which to close this small ‘harvest’ of writing.
–Adrian Donker, Ad. Donker Publishing
Ellen Palestrant’s strong inborn talent is many-sided. Her main gift is a vigorous comic inventiveness which she adapts to purposes of fantasy, farce or satire with equal facility and zest. She can be playfully inventive also in her use of language. By contrast, she is capable too, of persuasive realistic writing, and has written stories of poignant force.
-Lionel Abrahams, South African novelist, poet, editor and critic
Here we have a novella and four short stories by a cleverly original South African author. This is Ellen Palestrant’s debut. That there will be more of her delightfully amusing “off-beat” writings, I feel no doubt – I surely hope so. The stories, written with sprinklings of the South African vernacular, also include familiar place names and streets scattered throughout – all adding to their intriguing quality…Nosedive is superb…(it) goes to the heights – or is it depths – of hyperbole. I believe this must undoubtedly be one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
-Doug Slack, The Star
Ellen Palestrant’s writing is the perfect foil. She… sees the human condition without illusion, and especially the condition of the part of humanity which speaks with a South African accent… hers is the comic vision. Nosedive is a zany farce with strong satirical undertones. The writing is exuberant and refreshing and the author’s sense of the absurd is wholly delightful. If you are in need of a tonic… Ellen Palestrant is what you need.
-Natal Witness
The World of Glimpse
Signed Book – $49
