Ellen Buselli

Award-winning artist Ellen Buselli (B.F.A. ’74) is best known for realistic still-life and floral paintings that showcase her mastery of chiaroscuro, values, color, edges, and other painting techniques. “Painting is about observation and seeing. It is a lifetime pursuit,” she says. Buselli also paints plein-air landscapes (outdoor, on location), interiors, the figure, portraits, and pet portraits. Regardless of the subject, every painting starts with careful observation and deliberate decisions about how best to articulate what she is seeing.  

“Painting from life is the ultimate challenge and always captivating because the painter is dealing with many concepts all at once — light and shadow, values, color and temperature of color, edges, atmosphere, quality of paint, brushstrokes, and composition,” she says. “When all is carefully observed and applied, the look of three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface appears like magic.”

The only exception Buselli makes and uses photographic reference for is pet portraits. Years of painting from life make these paintings doable. Her pet portraits have expressed the power of art and have given solace and comfort to those who have lost their beloved pets.  

Her work is frequently featured in juried exhibitions and has earned her considerable recognition. The Art Renewal Center, an organization dedicated to representational art, has featured many of her paintings as finalists, and her The Old Melting Pots was part of the prestigious ARC Salon Traveling Exhibition shown at Sotheby’s and the European Museum of Modern Art, (MEAM) Barcelona, Spain. The Oil Painters of America has honored Buselli with the Best Still Life Award for Sunlit, the Winsor & Newton Award of Excellence for Peonies, and the Jack Richeson Silver Brush Award for Southwest Travels. Sunlit also received the Artists Magazine Cover Award, as did the Classical Light cover with American Artist Magazine. 

Buselli has also won the grand prize in American Women Artists’ exhibition Breaking Through: The Rise of Women Artists for her painting Woman in Turban, first place in American Artist Magazine’s 70th Anniversary competition for Hyacinth & The McCoy Pot, Best in Show in American Women Artists’ fifth annual exhibition for Study of a Rose, and Best Floral for David Austen Rose Medley and Best Building for The Brooklyn Bridge from PleinAir Magazine.  

The Old Melting Pots — described as a “tour de force” — was a highlight in the recent Salmagundi Club exhibition, Inanimate Musings: Premium Still-Life from the Collection. Founded in 1871 by artists and patrons, the New York City nonprofit club is one of the oldest arts organizations in the U.S. Past presidents and members have been Thomas Moran, Emil Carlsen, George Inness, Jr., William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, N.C Wyeth, and other illustrious traditional painters. 

Buselli’s paintings reflect her longstanding appreciation of realism and classicism. She finds inspiration in the works of Johannes Vermeer, Emil Carlsen, John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, William Merritt Chase, Mary Cassatt, Rosa Bonheur, Cecilia Beaux, Willard Metcalf, Isaac Levitan, Ilya Repin, Georgio Morandi, and others. 

Buselli selected Cornell for study because of its diverse art department, scholarly art history program, and Cornell’s Hubert F. Johnson Museum of Art. 

While at Cornell, Buselli’s professors included John E. “Jack” Bosson, Jr. (M.F.A. ’66) and visiting critic Friedel Dzubas, a well-known abstract color field painter. Although her professors were focused on abstract and contemporary painting, which did not interest her, the exposure to their art forms and the modern art scene was enlightening.

“They were educated professional artists who knew how to nurture someone’s passion and get me thinking about things in a way I never had before,” she says. In addition, scholarly art history courses fostered a deeper appreciation and understanding of American, Asian, African, and European cultures. Perhaps most memorable, a semester at the Tyler School of Art in Rome provided her the opportunity to see in person the works of many of the old great masters such as Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, Bernini, and others.  

After graduation from Cornell, Buselli moved to New York City, sought out painters she admired, and took classes at the Art Students League. She also always maintained a dedicated painting studio with north light — the preferred light source for traditional painters because of the consistent indirect light, creating shadows that remain the same all day and do not shift. 

Among her gifts is the ability to see and showcase the beauty of imperfection. She collects antique vases, old Roman glass, pueblo pottery, and other artifacts as subject matter for her still-life paintings, capturing distressed textures and weathered surfaces that give a sense of timelessness.  

Currently, Buselli is more focused on plein-air painting. Her favorite outdoor locations include “old New York” settings such as the Conservatory Water in Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and, for a change of pace, New Mexico landscapes. 

“I like the contrast between East Coast city life and the big blue skies and open vistas of the West,” she says. Buselli welcomes the challenge of plein-air painting, which is “very different from studio painting. When painting plein-air, one has to edit and make decisions very quickly because the weather and light are constantly changing,” she says. 

In all situations, studio painting or plein-air painting, “I paint what I see from life. That is the starting point,” Buselli says. 

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