Julie Ellis

We were immediately captivated by the work of emerging local artist Julie Ellis during a visit to Plymouth College of Art last summer, and are delighted to have the opportunity to show a small selection of her pieces for your enjoyment.

Julie was born in 1970 in Plymouth, Devon. A return to higher education in 2012 led to the Corporation Student of the year prize and a first class honours degree in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking at Plymouth College of Art.

A continuous themes of ‘place’ and ‘a sense of belonging’ have dominated Julie’s practice for some time now. Her mesmerising oil paintings convey the ambiguous, atmospheric and ethereal qualities of the land.

“Places tell stories where fragmented fables and memories intermingle. I seek to describe the landscape which exists in actuality and memory. The work is ambiguous, anonymous with incomplete and open narrative inviting the viewer to bring their own autobiographies and be transported by a desire to transcend to somewhere in the past. I make the work spontaneously and intuitively creating enigmatic and ambiguous compositions where visual information is subtracted and abstracted allowing the process to inform the work. The tactile nature of oil paint induces an intuitive, compelling and sensitive response to the materials producing fluid and organic looking imagery and forms.”