ELLIE TATE: @ELLIETATEART

I’m sure you hear this a lot, but the first thing that jumped out to me was your fabulous use of intense colours. Tell me about your colour palette. Is colour important to you?

Yes, my work is very colour dependent. I use colour in a reactive way; it just has to feel right. Colour is a tool for expressing abstract thought and I really rely on instinct rather than reasoning or logic. When starting a painting I often stare at my paints and pick out a number of colours that I think would suit the work but I don’t make specific plans and often change around the colours whilst I’m working. Sometimes a specific colour will come into my head when I’m not at the studio, either when I’m thinking about painting or doing something completely unrelated and then I rush to write it down in order to reflect properly when I’m back at the studio.

Being in lockdown I have noticed my colour palette has changed quite dramatically, mainly in the variety of colours I have been using. I have been reflecting on this change of approach to colour and I have realised how much I rely on colour to fulfil the need to release and express myself. Before lockdown I was obsessed with using three particular colours; pyrole orange, cobalt blue and yellow light hansa. As a combination these colours produce a jarring, bold, visually shocking impact. I was at the studio very sporadically and sometimes just for a couple of hours e.g in the evening after work. I used intense colours to fill large canvases, responding to feelings of frustration and the need to leave the studio with visual evidence that I have accomplished something. However I have expanded my use of colour and explored different possibilities during lockdown which was unplanned and I believe is due to having the luxury of time. I am always assessing how colours interact and communicate with each other.

Ellie, what questions drive your practice?

I question how it is possible to make the abstract and non-visual visual. I am interested in representing an inner, authentic world and a new reality rather than attempting to copy the physical world. I use painting to explore my personal psychology and what my experiences mean but also how this relates to others and the nature of human beings. I make sure to question my practice outside of the actual action of painting. Whilst painting I try to lose my mind in order to connect with my senses and get closer to my subconscious

Can you tell us a bit about your process, and how each of your artwork comes to be?

My paintings originate from quick automatic drawings. I respond to a moment in time immediately through drawing and then attempt to immortalise the moment through painting. I like linking the two approaches; using a pen to record a quick fleeting thought, feeling or moment and then working slowly through it, investigating it with paint. I pay special attention to colour and shape, following intuitions in order to realise possibilities and make choices.

Who or what are your biggest influences, and how do you find them? How do these come out in your work?

I love reading art books and visiting exhibitions. There are particular artists who I regularly look to for inspiration including Joan Miro, Kandinsky, Hilma AF Klint, Georgia O’Keeffe, Picasso, Carmen Herrera, Jean Arp, Ellsworth Kelly, David Hockney. As well as observing their paintings I like to delve in to their writings surrounding their practice. For example Kandinsky’s ‘Concerning the Spiritual in Art’ was a groundbreaking text which confirmed for me that art is indicative of the soul, an experience which serves both the artist and the audience.