A former award-winning artist at The Washington Post, JoEllen has earned national recognition for her pastels. She concentrates on painting scenes from the Mid-Atlantic region, which she calls home. She paints en plein air whenever possible and sometimes uses the smaller paintings to create larger works in her studio. "There is a freshness that comes from painting directly from life," she says. "I love the vibrancy of pastels, my favorite medium, and I strive to find the beauty of ordinary subjects that we pass by every day." JoEllen is a juried member of the Pastel Society of America and the Maryland Pastel Society. In 2015 she participated locally in the Solomons Plein Air Festival, hosted by carmen's gallery every September in Solomons.