Robert Ellison
Biography
Robert Ellison is a Northern Ireland based artist who blends realism with abstraction, using oil or heavy body acrylic, knife or brush to convey his excitement and interest in the subject with bold and often contrasting marks, colours and gestures. He finds inspiration in unusual aspects of a broad range of motifs featuring human beings, manmade or natural objects and the field markings, shapes and skies of the natural landscape. His painting is both inspired and informed by features of the many works he has seen by important expressionistic painters from the British Isles such as Joan Eardley, Basil Blackshaw and Barbara Rae and great European artists including Van Gogh, Matisse, Chaim Soutine and the German Expressionists.
His artwork has been exhibited widely and is held in private, corporate and public collections (one of his still life was recently reported to "preside" above the fireplace of the Northern Ireland Government's meeting room).
Awards include taking by his still lifes of first, second, third and fourth places in their category of the American Art Awards 2016, and by his figurative work of second and fith places in the Expressionism (Human) category of the same competition in 2020.
Ellison's creative process is informed by experience in his former job in the legal profession and as a playwright who had plays produced by both national theatres on the island of Ireland and one by BBC Radio 4 that took second place in category in the 1990 Sony Radio Awards (since restyled as the Sony Radio Oscars).
Artist Statement
I am an artist whose work distorts reality to an extent calculated to engage, intensify and reward the viewer's attention. I see each of my paintings as a wordless poem in which paint marks colours and textures collide or clash with sufficient energy and rhythm to say something about my environment and the emotions with which I perceive it.
Country United Kingdom
