Pressed Collage

Valerie Ellis is an artist, formerly a psychotherapist, living near London. She makes abstract expressionist oil paintings and works on paper. Valerie gained her degree in psychology from the prestigious University of Queensland, Australia where she lived for decades after moving from the UK where she grew up. Retiring from psychology after 20 years in private practice, attuned to intrapersonal dynamics, Valerie’s artwork uniquely reflects psychological themes like the effect of context and childhood on people, and how art communicates human needs symbolically. Returning to the UK in 2019, Valerie also returned to her artistic practice. Motivated by her own emotionally deprived childhood and sympathy for her clients, Valerie Ellis’ work continues to express her concern for psychological issues and for the welfare of those who suffer emotionally. "My art career started, as it tends to for artists, with childhood talent, with realistic drawing. Later, I taught myself oil painting but remained allied to representational work. In 2020, I felt a tension between the pleasure of making beautiful portrait paintings admired by others and making artwork with more depth and purpose...after all...the world has enough pretty pictures, doesn't it? So, I studied the work of the mid-century abstract expressionists of the New York school...among the first to really challenge representation. I understood their motivation to say more about the things we can't see with our eyes...about the things we think and feel and yearn for. I created the first abstract work in 2020 and 2021 has seen that continue with the First Impressions series, exhibited at the Saatchi Art Other Art Fair, London. This work is the first I feel strongly has something important to say and is worthy of attention. More series are emerging from my studio in the same vein...symbolic and conceptual work that acknowledges the inner world."