Blanche Ellis
Born in London, Camden Town, 1988, I now practice my art between London and the Barcelona studio.
Education: initially self taught and fascinated by faces and gestures, my studio was the London Underground where I learnt to capture fleeting glimpses and develop my sense of mark making. In recent years I have studied more traditional techniques of oil painting and how to capture the fall of light. My practice exists in building a bridge between these modes, between the primal, instinctive line and the delicate, analytical balance of colour, of light and dark.
Transformation: drawing, dancing and music feel akin to me, the arc of a line is the gesture of the body and the sign of a melody, my figurative work plays along these lines of abstraction, distortion and metamorphosis. The plurality of expression that blurs the boarders between various art forms makes it natural for me to mix media and styles, I am searching for those lived moments that are ‘unfixed’, always evolving.
Textual/Textural: I experiment with writing, symbols and visual language. I am fascinated by the way that image and text run together and alongside, and by the writing that patterns our public and private spaces. I am a great lover of handwriting and an avid letter writer. These things in turn, all feed back into my work which is tied up with the traces written into our bodies by time and experience.
• Workshops
CREATIVE ENCOUNTER, GESTALT
Workshops & sessions informed by gestalt art therapy.
VISUAL THINKING & INFORMATION DESIGN
Workshops & mentoring for visual thinking, visual communication & graphic recording.
2019 – 2020 – Expressive drawing workshops at Barcelona Academy of Art.
• Press
2025, April – [In]trascendent: Dona i Art Exhibition – Featured Artist. LeCool, Barcelona, Spain.
2024, October – Sketchnote Army Podcast Interview: Blanche Ellis & the chance encounter that sparked a career in graphic recording – S16/E05
2024, October – SPIRIT(ED) Magazine – Featured Artist, Article: Towards The Invisible – Blanche Ellis, p21-29, London, UK.
2022, September – In The Garden: Subterráneo – Exhibition review in Els Temps De Les Artes, Barcelona, Spain.
> Other publications of In The Garden: Frikifish & ArtRabbit
2020, April – Interview, The Hive Podcast with Nathalie Nahaï, – Attention, Transformation & The Power Of Everyday Creativity / Blanche Ellis, Ep.34
2020, February – Review of group exhibition with One Wall Gallery & Amuleto, Frikifish, Barcelona, Spain.
2020, September – Solo exhibition, Barcelona, Spain – Documentary by Mikhail Chernikov
2019, June – Interview with ALTart BCN, Barcelona, Spain. Video interview, English / Written interview, Spanish.
2019, May – Interview with Femme Sapiens – Barcelona, Spain.
2018, February – Artwork published in Elbow Room, London, Uk
2018, Summer – The Scores Issue 4, London, Uk.
2016, February – Interview with The London Y – London, Uk.
• Exhibitions & Projects
2025, June – Solo exhibition – Casa Astor, Barcelona, Spain
2025, April – Duo Exhibition, Entrelazados, Lab Cultural, Barcleona, Spain.
2025, April – Group Exhibition + Art Fair, [In]trascendent: Dona i Art, La Clandestina, Barcelona, Spain.
2024, November – Duo Exhibition, TRANSFORMANT LA MIRADA, Centre Cívic Drassanes, Barcelona, Spain.
2023, November – Group Exhibition, Featured Artist, Treze Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.
2023, August – Group exhibition: Chelsea Fine Art Competition, Agora Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
2023, July – Selected by Agora Gallery, New York, NY, USA, in the Chelsea Fine Art Competition. Representation by Agora Gallery.
2023, April – Group exhibition: Centre Cívic Pati Llimona, Antique Methods of Photography, Barcelona, Spain.
2022, September – Solo exhibition: In The Garden: Subterráneo, Atelier Güell Art Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.
2021, December – Solo exhibition of Mythologies series, NY, USA.
2020, September – Solo Exhibition: Songs For Sight, Barcelona, Spain – Video & Artworks
2020, February – March – Group exhibition for ‘Who is Interested in What?‘: One Wall project by Amuleto Art, Barcelona, Spain. Representation by Amuleto Art Gallery
2019, May-June, Group exhibition: MISNōMA #3 The Wild & The Tame – Inauguration, hosting panel discussion, closing.
In collaboration with Barcelona Academy of Art & the MEAM.
2018, December – Curation of MISNōMA #2 Art Market & Art Festival
2018, June – Group exhibition: MISNōMA #1 – Curation and participation in group exhibition and art festival involving interactive discussions, activities and performances including dance & poetry and an art fair. Project management, fundraising and sponsorship, coordinating volunteers, communications with; clients, artists, performers, sponsors & venue and installation of artworks.
2018 – Founder: MISNōMA – A platform for exhibitions & art festivals. For more information visit MISNōMA•bcn
2016, November – ‘Tide Take Him’ Exhibition and launch of Various Guises Debut EP, London. I curated a group exhibition on the theme of the title track and exhibited the original and concept artwork for the EP as well as musical themed etchings. The EP artworks link together in a narrative line that echoes the songs.
2016, November – ‘Collage Mind’ Solo exhibition at Creative Connection Studios, London.
2016, March – ‘Make Ready’ Group Exhibition at Attico Arts, London. Exhibiting two works drawn from the songs of my folk duo Various Guises.
2015, December – 2016, January – Working with the Jagriti Yatra, India. A charity that runs an anual train journey around India, inspired by the train journey Gandhi took after returning from South Africa. It takes 400 young Indian social entrepreneurs to meet role models and experience the diversity of their own country from the biggest cities to its most rural outposts. They explore the strengths, weaknesses and challenges their country faces, land look for avenues of positive social change. Working in partnership with Temujen Gunawardena I lived on the train with the Yatri’s and created a 10 metre long mural capturing the content and experience of the journey.
2015, December – ‘Drawing Intensive’ group exhibition with other students of the Royal Drawing School at Mercer and Chance Gallery in Hoxton, London.
2015, September – Group exhibition at the VGCC with Miscilânia Art. Exhibiting a series of figurative illustrations with cut-up text, an emerging series that’s still in progress and a cousin of the Mistakable Bodies series, London, UK.
2014, November – ‘The Herodotus Debate’ live and large-scale, narrative illustrations for collaborative, multimedia workshops spanning the arts, academia and interactive theatre. Funded by APGRD & Arts and Humanities Research Council.
2014, September – group exhibition of live drawings commissioned by Nicoline van Harskamp for her project based around a live translation of George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion‘ from multiple languages at the Kunstraum Gallery in Hoxton, London. The resulting illustrations were also used in the publication of the transcript by Onomatopee.
2014, June – Group exhibition ‘Obsession: Love, Ritual, Collection’ at the Embassy Tea Gallery, London.
2013, December – 2014, December, Artist in Residence for the Caravanserai.
2013, December, Group exhibition; Rubbish. My work concerned the natural life and beauty that joins the debris in city streets and falls into the category of ‘waste’.
2013, November, Exhibition of large-scale work with Project 21 at the Caravanserai in Canning Town. A mural/cityscape work in relation to the area and its regeneration.
2013, September, Artist in residence & exhibition of Musicians, Writers & Philosophers series at Spiritual venue and gallery, Camden Town.
2013, August, Illustrations commissioned for Shambala Festival, UK.
2013, January – April, Exhibition and representation by Touché Gallery, Royal St, New Orleans, USA.
2012 Summer – Founder of children’s arts club: Camden’s Creative Creatures.
2012, July – Illustrations commissioned for House of Fairy Tales.
2012, July – working with Body Action Campaign charity running puppet making workshops for children in Tooting/Battersea.
2012 –Stars Trust Charity running art workshops for the children.
2012 –Emerson Private Academy, designing and running art workshops for children.
2011 – 2012, House of Fairy Tales working on children’s arts events, running immersive creative experiences.
2011 – June, Group Exhibition with Dark Mountain Project in Sainsbury Centre in Norwich. My exhibition Waste (Not) challenged the categorisation of objects as waste.
2010 – Children’s book illustrations: Aurora Stanhope.
• Education
Escuela Hephaisto, Barcelona, 2021-2022 – Gestalt Art Therapy, working with the essential creativity in each human, to explore, support and deepen their relationship to themselves and the world.
Barcelona Academy of Art, 2017 -2019, Scholarship – Working in a traditional atelier to explore ‘old master’ renaissance style draftsmanship and oil painting techniques within the western traditions of realism.
Royal Drawing School, London, 2015 – Drawing Intensive course.
Blake College, London, 2011 – 2012, Foundation in Art and Design. Distinction, final work selected as ‘exceptional’. My work explored the blend of verbal/worded and visual/abstract communication, the build and residue of ritual, and the ways to grow individual and communal expression and interpretation. Veils and Stones Project.
Reed College, USA 2009-2010 as part of the Literature degree below. At Reed I studied mainly painting, short stories and storytelling traditions, leading me ever closer to my interest in folk tales, folk music and oral storytelling.
UEA , Norwich 2007-2011 – American Literature and Creative Writing (1st) with broad smatterings of history, philosophy and painting. Focusing in my latter years on Native American and Afro-American literature, film and traditional folk-tales and oral culture.
And the last note on education is that gained, informally, from all the people I’ve met in, and in-between, all the above places.
Blanche Ellis 