For the past 41 years, Ellen Håkensen Faris has lived in USA, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. She came to the United States as a young woman from her homeland of Norway to work as a Flight Attendant for Pan American Airlines. After meeting her husband of 37 years, she settled down and started pursuing her creative talents, getting an education in Graphic Design. She then formed her company Design Plus, along with raising her son and daughter.
Ellen has been greatly involved in the Norwegian Community in the Bay Area for many years and was the Creative Director for the annual Norway Day Festival. While working with the festival, she created large canvases of painted images displaying sceneries of Norway to be used as backdrops. She also created a replica of a children´s village in Norway, made out of styrofoam. The village now makes an annual appearance for the enjoyment of all the children visiting the Festival.
Ellen's interest in photography, use of colors and working on the computer got her started in creating digital art.
string
of dots
acrylic
on canvas, 36 x 36
nordlandsbåt
("boat of Northern Norway")
acrylic
on 3D canvas, 100cm x 100cm
After the loss of her husband in 2006 and to help ease her heartache, Ellen started to paint some of her digital art images and has now found a new passion. Ellen is using the same technique as she did creating the backdrops, using cotton canvases and high quality acrylic wall paint, mixing colors herself to get the color she wants. The images are taken from her own photographs, transformed into graphic images on the computer, and then freehand drawn and painted onto a blank canvas.
Colors are very much part of Ellen. She always has been drawn to bright and vivid colors. Now that the painting has taken over her interest from strictly using her creativity in her business as a designer creating for others, she can freely express her love of the whole color spectrum without restrictions.
Ellen spends several months in Norway every year where she owns a condominium at the edge of the Oslo fjord. While in Norway, Ellen enjoys hiking in the mountains as well as exploring the coastline in her kayak. Being at the seaside in Norway, many of her paintings reflect the boating life she is very much part of.