Koteen has been practicing photography for the past decade, focusing on flowers and landscapes.
Florence artist Ellen Koteen with some of her photographs on display at the Easthampton City Hall Gallery.
NORTHAMPTON - Florence artist Ellen Koteen never envisioned selling her colorful, serene photographs to anyone but her friends and family.
But after many exhibitions and a positive audience response, Koteen has had the chance to share her work throughout Western Massachusetts.
She continues now with her ongoing exhibition at the Easthampton City Hall Gallery, located at 50 Payson Avenue. The display will continue until March.
Koteen, originally from New York, splits her time between Florence and Prince Edward Island in Canada. Nature has always inspired her and has lead to a deeper appreciation for its beauty, she says.
“My first exhibit (at Forbes Library in Northampton) was called ‘Inside the Flower,’ and I can just spend a couple of hours photographing one flower. My inspiration was getting inside the flowers and trying to capture the light and the shadows,” said Koteen.
Using a macro lens, Koteen is able to capture rich detail within the flower, and give her photographs a more 3-dimensional effect.
Some of Ellen Koteen's photographs are seen on display at the Easthampton City Hall Gallery.
But since switching to a digital camera last year with no macro lens, Koteen has switched to landscape photographs. Photographs of apple trees, beach scenes, and barns can be found in her more recent work.
While photography has many steps between the inspiration and the finished product, Koteen said the beginning and end of the process are the most enjoyable.
“I guess I have two favorite parts, one is spending time with the flowers or in the natural scene. Actually, cows are the only live things in all my photographs. I’ve no people in them. Just trying to spend time creating the composition, thinking what to include, what to exclude, when the lighting is right. A lot of my photographs are taken at botanical gardens, so a lot of times I sit there and wait for the sun to come through the window at the right angle,” said Koteen.
“My second favorite part is I do my own matting and framing, so once it’s framed up it looks great to me, when I’m lucky, when I’m happy with what I got and the finished product,” Koteen said.
Koteen has been practicing photography for the past decade, and has a studio in the Cottage Street Studios building. The exhibit at the Easthampton City Hall Gallery has special meaning for her, since she worked in the building for 11 years as the grants coordinator until 2011 when she retired.
Ellen Koteen is seen in her Cottage Street studio in Easthampton.
Koteen is also one of the founders of Easthampton City Arts+. The program contains three galleries: the City Hall Gallery, the Chamber of Commerce, and the old town hall. Koteen has shown her work in the other two galleries, so this exhibit brings her full circle.
Koteen said she hopes to get a macro lens for her digital camera so she can continue photographing flowers, like in her earlier work. In the meantime, the prints of her photographs can be purchased at the gallery, or at her Cottage Street studio, located at One Cottage Street. Greeting cards can also be found in her Cottage Street studio.
The Easthampton City Hall Gallery is free, and open to the public.