Ellen Bashford

Ellen Bashford is a self-taught painter based in Hackney, East London who began painting in 2019 alongside a career in arts publishing. Working mainly in acrylic painting, her work, created in shallow relief with modelling paste, immerses the viewer in saturated, abstract forms and fantastical scenes, drawing on the geometric shapes and colour palettes of Modernist movements and the acts of Surrealists.

These influences are synthesised into sometimes humorous and absurd compositions that set vibrant, painted figures and objects against textured backgrounds. The resulting paintings, of landscapes and scenes real and imagined, are populated with lively interactions between biomorphic forms. Suggestive of such scenes as dinners, gatherings of people, landscapes or outer space, the combined effect represents an instinctive relationship to space and form.

Bashford’s work is an imaginative submersion into a world of colour and movement, layered and textured with hidden meaning.

Q&A

We recently had the pleasure of talking with Ellen about her creative process, favourite artists and painting rituals when creating her fantastical abstracted scenes. Whether you’re an art enthusiast or simply curious about the mind of a creative, this conversation offers a deeper understanding of what drives Ellen’s passion and keeps her creativity flowing. We hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look into her world.

How would you describe your artistic style, and has it evolved over time?

My work came together initially as a language of saturated colours and forms. I wanted to create an immersion, a sense of movement, evoking an event. Recently, I’ve begun to experiment with abstracting still life.

Did you receive any formal training in art, or do you consider yourself more of a self-taught or outsider artist? How has that shaped your creative approach?

I think, because I have no formal training, my creative process builds as I compile books and magazines, sketches I’ve made, shapes I’ve seen, even Instagram posts, that will give me an idea for a composition or scene, which I then translate to canvas. Invariably, it becomes imbued with the seasonal palettes that surround me at the time I’m painting.

Where do you find inspiration for your pieces? Do you have any specific rituals or routines that spark your creativity?

I work very early in the morning, as soon as there is a scrap of light. My work responds to and reflects urban culture and nature – I love the vibrance of both. In terms of rituals, I find I’m wedded to different musical genres for different work; mostly listening to Radio 3 or if it’s a particularly figurative piece, the rat pack and friends. There’s always music on.