Ellen Lynch was raised in a rural community in Western New York, where forests, fields, and the dairy farm where she worked from the age of seven, fostered her curiosity and innate embrace of the natural world. Trees and creeks were her playground, and dogs, cats, horses and cows among her close companions.
Ellen’s family of perpetual crafters and makers nurtured her creativity. Gifts and toys were made rather than purchased, playing outside was the norm, and rainy days produced plays or birdhouses made of popsicle sticks. It seemed natural to enter college as an art major, and Ellen received her fine arts degree from the State University of New York at Purchase. Upon graduating, sensing the need for a larger world, she pursued her career as a graphic designer in New York City.
After a decade of relishing the City, and having earned acclaim in her field, Ellen was called back to the natural world, relocating to southeast Idaho near the Teton Mountains. While maintaining her client base in New York, she wandered the mountains on horseback, camera in tow, capturing the grandeur of the granite peaks, the dramatic skies, and the animals who make their home there. She also established a cattle ranch and enjoyed being “the camera cowgirl.”
Today, Ellen makes her home in New York’s Hudson Valley, visiting the West and the new settings as often as possible. Dramatically different landscapes keep her eyes fresh in an ongoing search for ways of seeing, capturing and sharing the world around her.
Ellen’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and she is thrilled to be sharing her images at the Spencertown Academy.