Ellena Fries
“Here in West Penwith in Cornwall, I feel the land is talking to me: its wilderness, its beauty and sometimes the harshness of the rain and the wind. The colours and the light are very special and an ongoing invitation as well as challenge to my painter’s brush. For me the alchemy of painting lies in the courageous use of colour and the representation of light. My aim is to capture the magical essence of a landscape or seascape and bring it to life on a canvas. Nature and Colour are great healers and I wish to be at their service. I believe Healing happens, when looking at a painting makes your heart sing.”
Born and bred in a village near the French border in the wooded region of the river Saar in Germany, I always feel ‘a little bit French’ as well as German and the French Impressionists are one of my greatest inspirations.
Growing up in a beautiful countryside ignited my deep love for nature.
I started to paint without any formal art education and had my first exhibition “Images of the Soul” in Cologne, Germany in 1998. I was lucky to sell some of these early works, which were mainly concerned with images or symbols as the language of the soul.
Later on I took some formal classes in oil painting, water colour and life drawing and in 1999 I went on a painting trip to Cornwall, where I stayed in St. Ives and Zennor and felt immensely inspired by the Cornish landscape: I’d found the landscape of my heart and not long after that first visit, in 2001 I moved to Cornwall. I took up to study painting again more formally and am now in my second A-level year in Fine Art at Penwith College.
I took part in a group exhibition in The Bay Restaurant Gallery in January 2008. And at the same place some of my work can be seen from 9th of November onwards.
