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Nancy Elks is a mixed media artist and painter whose spontaneous process results in bold, colourful images that captivate the viewer. Whether it is her large format canvasses with Neo Expressionist influences or her expressive portraiture, there is no denying that colour is her thing. A native of the UK with a background in advertising and graphic design, she enjoyed a successful career as an advertising copywriter/art director in London, where she was awarded two British Television and Campaign Awards. Shortly after, she embarked on a decade of exploration and discovery, travelling solo around the globe, twice. Some of the photos she took around this time made their way onto wine bottle labels. On returning to the UK she laid her hat, or “tat”, for a while in rural Yorkshire, in a sleepy village far from the hustle and bustle of city life. And it was here that she turned her attention to painting. |
Today Nancy spends much of her time in the vibrant city of Brighton. Her art is bursting with colourful characters and influences that have travelled with her through life, from Pop Culture to Hockney, Basquiat and the Neo Expressionists and Street Art. Even Classical Art. For example, the painting “How do you do?” raises more than just its hat to the nipple tweaking painting “Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses sœurs”.
“My practice in the studio is totally freestyle. Improvised, wild and impulsive. I work with the music cranked up to 11 and inhibitions on zero. I start the process by making marks or areas of bold colour to tame the whiteness of the surface. These improvised, energetic marks become the basis of the painting. I have a loose image in my mind’s eye of what I want to create and with a broad selection of materials within easy reach (anything from regular paints to charcoal, oil bars, acrylic pens, aerosols and even boot polish) I let the image evolve. It is a totally self-indulgent experience and one that I feel so incredibly fortunate to be involved in”.
Nancy Elks
“My practice in the studio is totally freestyle. Improvised, wild and impulsive. I work with the music cranked up to 11 and inhibitions on zero. I start the process by making marks or areas of bold colour to tame the whiteness of the surface. These improvised, energetic marks become the basis of the painting. I have a loose image in my mind’s eye of what I want to create and with a broad selection of materials within easy reach (anything from regular paints to charcoal, oil bars, acrylic pens, aerosols and even boot polish) I let the image evolve. It is a totally self-indulgent experience and one that I feel so incredibly fortunate to be involved in”.
Nancy Elks