‘I don’t need to show the whole piano; the main point is the keys’
-Merlene Ellis
“I don’t need to show the whole piano; the main point is the keys.” That was Merlene Ellis, a painter described as so accomplished that she does not need to tell the whole story in her work anymore.

‘ECLIPSE OVER ROOFTOPS’: An Ellis painting currently on display at the National Gallery

‘Strokes and Layers’, a new collection of paintings by Ellis, attracted a large crowd to the National Gallery of Art, at Castellani House on Vlissengen Road and Homestretch Avenue last Wednesday afternoon.

Curator of the National Art Gallery, Ms Elfrieda Bissember, said that confidence has always been a notable feature of Ellis’s work, from her earliest exhibitions. She described Ellis as someone who understood what she saw, and had the tools, skills and imagination to convert this to canvas with the use of strong tones and pure colours.

‘MAIN STREET’

This freedom to choose the colours shapes and lines of compositional elements and their placing in the picture space, and the ability to execute these choices to a successful culmination, she said, measures the difference between a successful artist and a less authoritative one.

A visitor to the National Gallery studies one of Ellis’ pieces with scarce-concealed interest

Ellis’s still-life’s are described as unusual. You won’t find the usual arrangement of fruit or flowers, but pieces which are titled according to their subject; like Milk and Roll; Five Candles; Bottles, Drums and Guitar; and Chocolate Buns.

Bissember sees Georgetown Range Houses and Tall Buildings as “wonderful essays in bold and subtle colour,” and Independence Night and Heliconia as “bold and sketchy in their abandon.”

‘VICTIMS OF CIRCUMSTANCE’

Ellis’ work, largely done in water colour, oil and acrylic paints, were accomplished with both palette and knife and range in price from $15, 000 to $ 200,000.The exhibition, which is free of cost, continues until Saturday July 25.