Elaine Cole Dillingham is an artist living and working in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Acrylic is her preferred medium because, as she tells her painting students, “If you like weird and wild, acrylic is for you.”

Elaine uses a variety of application methods – knife, brush, rag – to build each painting gradually, by layering and masking. It’s the unlimited expressive potential of the paint that so fascinates her. Her preferred support is gessoed hardboard, due to its rigidity and ability to withstand aggressive treatment – such as scraping and sanding – resulting in unique surface textures.

“Attention to detail, subtlety, and luminosity are what I’m going for. Though I design each composition carefully, I seek and embrace the surprises inherent in the painting process, the yin-yang of control vs. spontaneity.”

The startling beauty of the high desert of Northern Arizona inspires Elaine every day, but she is not a landscape artist.

“I look within. My paintings, though mostly nonrepresentational, are about our shared human condition, our search for meaning, our desire to know God. At least, that’s what they are to me. Perhaps you will experience them differently. Thank you for your thoughtful viewing.”