The Paint Pod - Ellie Kerr-Smiley

Talking portraiture, power and patience with the wonderful young portrait artist Ellie Kerr-Smiley.

Ellie Kerr-Smiley is a UK-based portrait artist whose work focuses on the depiction of women and the reclamation of the gaze. Using images of women in her life, other working artists or images that are submitted to her, Ellie’s work aims to propel every-day women into the spotlight. Her work plays with the balance between traditional portraiture and abstraction, creating portraits that tell a story – or perhaps conceal one. 
Ellie has come from a non-traditional artist’sbackground, having had no formal arts education or training, her work is spontaneous and unplanned, having spilled out of her after many years of working in offices. In late 2020, she picked up her paints again after almost ten years of sitting in a box and began painting incessantly. Less than a year later, she had grown a following on Instagram, taken a residency position at the arts centre The Base and began working as an artist full-time. Her work has since been exhibited and sold at The Contemporary Art Fair, the Insight Exhibition, and through her openaccess studio and website. 
Ellie is passionate about keeping the art space accessible and helping others

https://www.instagram.com/elliekerrsmiley/

https://www.elliekerrsmiley.com