Artist brings angels to life

Ellen Blaschke has been painting professionally for 15 years. But it wasn’t until 2005, when charitable work inspired her, that she began to paint angels.

“It was two years ago, at Christmas, that the Christ Kitchen had an assignment for 30 artists to paint an angel for their auction to raise money,” says Blaschke. “The theme was angels watching over me. I thought, ‘Well, I’ve never painted an angel in my life, but here goes.’ “

Blaschke learned painting in high school, where she had an inspiring teacher. Her favorite subjects were Mount Spokane and Indian powwows, until she discovered angels. All of her angels are female, painted in acrylics and they all issue from her imagination; she never uses models.

“What I do is interpretive abstract,” says Blaschke. “I do an abstract wash of acrylics, let them dry overnight, and the next morning I take the canvas and start turning it. I study it and I see the angel popping out. Then I take gold and I accent her.”

If Blaschke doesn’t see any angels the first time, then she does another wash. Often she’ll brush on several layers of different colors until she spies one or many seraphs. In one painting she saw none, only seven haloes and part of a wing. A spirit child appears on one canvas. Only a single painting has a creature other than an angel – a white bird. She calls it Heavenly Dove.

Blaschke paints on canvas, wood, hardboard, greeting cards and lampshades. Only one picture is framed. The rest are gallery wrapped canvas, where the canvas is stretched onto bars and the scene continues around the edges. Her background hues vary, mainly light and positive, but she does have a shadowy one called Out of the Dark where she started with a dark brown wash.

“It’s almost like a dance,” says Blaschke. “Should I go left or right? Let’s see, this tube or that tube. It moves all the time.”

Blaschke does a lot of custom work.

Although Blaschke has never seen an angel, she does believe in them. She’s certain that they can talk and sing and appear in dreams. Much of her work is inspired by a Guideposts publication called Angels on Earth, in which many people claim to have had contact with celestial spirits.

Blaschke’s favorite painting is her first divine spirit, in pastels of green, yellow and blue, which she calls Dancing Angel. And although she exhibits her paintings in several galleries now, in the future she would love to open an angel gallery of her own. Then she could have all her paintings in one place, and be there when a patron comments how a certain picture just “spoke to her.”

“And that’s what it’s all about, interpretation,” says Blaschke. “It’s how you feel about it. It’s art.”