Art is almost always personal, but Elly Smallwood’s paintings add an extra layer of personalness. Using mostly oil, acrylic, and watercolor, her portraits focus on the human body in all its messiness. “Art is so personal,” said the painter in an interview with Flare magazine.
“Every single piece feels like a piece of your soul on the canvas. People see a lot of different things in my art, but for me it’s about my fascination with humanity and the world around me, and a very intense desire to capture that.”
Originally from Ottawa, Smallwood graduated from OCAD University in 2011. “I sketch for at least the first hour to warm up before I start painting,” said the artist. “I sketch a mix of everything—things that are in my mind, sometimes I’ll have a photo to work from. Then I look through all of my sketches and from those I’ll combine them, like using an idea from one sketch and a color from another, into something I want to paint on a large scale.”
But even though it’s personal, she still treats her art as work. “To me, going to work is just going to work,” she stressed. “You show up and maybe for the first few hours you don’t make anything great but as long as you’re there and you’re making work, that’s beneficial to your practice.”
Take a closer look at some of her creations.
