Born in Minneapolis, Ellen Richman attended the University of Minnesota department of design before receiving her BFA from the University of Minnesota department of fine art in 1995. Upon graduation she continued her color studies in Playa del Carmen, Q.Roo Mexico, where her paintings were informed by the full spectrum of light. Color became the singular defining element in her work as she continued to experiment with saturated hues and chromatic divergence.
She developed a program in Abstract Painting based on her formalist ideas at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts in Minneapolis MN, where she was faculty from 2006-2019. She juried, curated and produced annual abstract exhibits for the school. Her work is featured in the corporate collections of Deloitte, Phillips Beverage Company, Boston Scientific and the Bentson Foundation among many others.
Ellen employs a reductive form of abstraction which emphasizes the plasticity and two dimensionality of painting. Considerations of the visual elements color, form and space drive the meaning of her work. It interests her how this universal language continues to be an exploration. Informed by geometric and organic patterns everywhere, Ellen is inspired by how the interaction of color affects mood, emotion and the subconscious mind. Her intent is to create an effective minimal structured image of unencumbered space.