About the Artist

Emilie Astell began painting full time eight years ago after a lengthy career as a journalist. She works in pastels and acrylics using color and light to convey emotion. Her main subjects are landscapes and still lifes.

Astell pursued fine art education at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., where she was awarded a certificate in drawing and painting in 2009. She also studied at the DeCordova Museum School, Lincoln, Ma., and at various colleges in the St. Louis area.

For more than three decades, Astell was a journalist at several daily newspapers including the Telegram & Gazette, Worcester, Ma.; The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.; and The Messenger, Madisonville, Ky. During her career, she won awards in news coverage and features from a variety of professional journalism organizations. She wrote on a wide range of subjects including politics, secondary and higher education, courts, business, strip mining, the environment and general news.

Astell has a bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism from Southern Illinois University. A native of New Jersey, she lived in the Midwest for a number of years before relocating to Holden, Ma., with her husband, John.

Artist’s Statement

Communication has been my lifelong passion from my earlier career in journalism to fine arts and painting. My goal is to engage viewers in the journey of discovery as they relate to shape, color and light in landscape and still life paintings.

For me, painting is the way I express how I feel about the world around me.

On sunny days outdoors or in the studio, ever changing light and shadow patterns cause me to reflect on the transience of appearances. Even on cloudy, windy days outdoors, I find the challenge of capturing the turbulence exhilarating.

My artistic adventure began in childhood when my sister showed me how to apply oil paint to her previously painted, but rejected, landscapes. Using one of her slightly worn brushes, I often turned her work upside down in order to begin my own drawing and subsequent painting. While I did not abandon painting altogether as I grew up, the need for a college education and a career took center stage. Still, on occasion, I returned to my artistic bent using various mediums to convey my feelings about a given subject.

After more than three decades meeting deadlines and responding to breaking news, I decided to return to my artistic roots. First, I sought technical knowledge as a way to eventually place more emphasis on the emotional side of art. This decision serves me well in the second leg of my journey as I continue to find inspiration in observing everyday objects and translating them into paintings.

While painting is a great joy, I also experience an almost childlike delight in roaming New England while looking for places to set up my easel and record what I see as well as what I feel about the scene. From observing to sketching and finally to painting, I travel through many phases of emotional connectedness to my work, culminating in a feeling of accomplishment at the end of a day.

Awards and Exhibits

Awards

• 1st prize in pastels in the 2012 Breath of Spring show at Cape Cod Art Association
• 2nd prize in pastels in the 2012 All New England show at CCAA
• The Eleanor Ferri Jones award in the 2010 All New England show at CCAA

Juried Exhibits

• The 2011 and 2012 Frances N. Roddy open competition at Concord Art Association
• The 2011 members show at CAA
• For Pastels Only exhibits in 2011 and 2012 at the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod
• The 2011 and 2012 All Cape Cod shows at CCAA
• The 2011 regional competition at Fitchburg Art Museum

Other Exhibits

• Princeton Art Society
• In Natick, Belmont and Framingham with a group of fellow artists who annually travel to Orr’s Island, ME, to paint en plein air.
• In the October 2011 show at Ashland Public Library where “Strawberries,” was chosen by trustees to be included in the library’s permanent exhibit.

Her work is also in private collections.