They Died with their Boots On (Soul Shaker) Painting

“My practice is born from growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, in a seaside hotel with an extended family of transient strangers with no room to call my own. The Apollo space missions and iconic western movies indelibly etched on my mind, imagination captured by the extraordinary and unworldly – planets, alien visitations, cowboys and indians.”  Tribes. Honour. Celebration. Origin. Authenticity. Integrity. Land. Ocean. Space. From a childhood shared with tourists on the South Coast of England to his experiences as a traveler in California and New Mexico, Ellis-Brown seeks common ground by revealing fundamental truths in conflicting beliefs and cultural traditions. Drawing on his graphic roots, Ellis-Brown uses iconic imagery, immersive colour, symbolism and photography - applying paint, pigment, encaustic processes and collage. The diptych composition is often featured, creating a primal tension between imagery, colour and surface. His meticulously hand-painted and multi-layered works aim to challenge convention, postcolonial attitudes and propaganda, taking the viewer on a journey through contemporary abstraction. Ellis-Brown renders his art with a raw energy that comes from the artist’s proximity to the subject. Ellis-Brown opens a dialogue between ancient history, pop culture, space science and the future of planet Earth. Focusing on each image before relocating its context is a way of celebrating the enduring materiality of images whilst safeguarding the vulnerability of others. This dissonance subverts, disrupts and enriches our recognition of the visual world, touching our soul through a moment of reflection and realisation. Ellis-Brown exhibits in the UK and abroad, with work sold to private and public collections throughout the world. Ellis-Brown has regularly shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and is a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists.