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Watercolor, Ink, & Eli
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2017/10 - October
Eli Ramirez, graphic designer and watercolorist, packs her paints and pens every morning as she heads to work at the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce.
Her motto: “Be portable. You never know when Nature will surprise you with a fantastic image.” A dramatic mountainscape, a phenomenal sunrise, an oak ablaze with fall foliage, or an extraordinary play of light on leafing limbs might compel her talented hands to pull out paints and immortalize a Mother Nature moment.
It is these original watercolor sketches in a 6”x 9” format, highlighted with pen and ink, then matted and framed, that have brought her recognition in Western North Carolina. And it’s no wonder. She graduated from Southwestern Community College with a degree in graphics. She knows her environment. She is enraptured by the natural elements of the land, which are colored and textured by seasonal changes…from the lushness of summer to the compelling neutral palettes of winter.
Creating-on-the-go is second nature to her. Inspired by her great-grandmother, also a watercolorist, Eli has an abiding love of the medium. She adds pen work to her sketches, which makes her style distinctive.
Painting also has a therapeutic expression for Eli. In her youthful twenties, she and art have just begun their dialog. She welcomes growing in the medium. Art sustains her.
“Art makes me happy,” she says. “The more I paint, the more I learn. It’s a lifelong process, which I warmly welcome.”
And that warmth reflects in her subject matter and work titles such as “Touchable Sunset,” “Landline,” “Mountains in the Sky,” “Flower Field,” “Orange Sky Floating,” “Shady Mountain,” and dozens more which you can view on her website, elineandoaks.com.
Her “aha” moments occur peering at the sky through a forest.
“I love looking up into the leaves. When the light hits surfaces just right, that always takes my breath away.”
Eli can be reached though email at [email protected]. She is also on Facebook and Instagram.
