We catch up with Ele Pack

Q: Hey Ele, it’s lovely to catch up. Your paintings create visual experiences to be felt on an emotional level. Do you find your style evolving over time?

A: I’ve always felt art is a mirror of self. As you evolve as a person, you reveal that change through the marks and gestures you make. It’s unavoidable. Your work is always moving forward with the momentum of life.

Over the past year I’ve attempted to let my subconscious guide the work a little more. Trusting that my instincts and the process will bring the painting to fruition. This has led to working with washes of colour, pouring and dripping paint, working on the floor, and experimenting with pigments, and different metallics, which allows new marks and paths to emerge. Embracing a lack of control. Creating marks that are energy, and emotion. Allowing things to happen, both literally and figuratively.

Q: Poetry and literature appear to be a source of inspiration for you, a poem of your own features on your website. Does processing thought and emotion through the written word inform your painting practice?

A: I love poetry and literature. Words can be elusive to me, in expressing how I feel. I am fascinated by the limits of words: what we can’t say, what we can only feel. I am drawn to poetry in that sense. Using words as fragments, snapshots and fleeting memories. Glimpses. This is how I experience the world. I trust my senses more than words.

I love this Gerhard Richter quote:

‘You can only express in words what words are capable of expressing-- what language can communicate. Painting has nothing to do with that. Art is the highest form of hope.’

Q: Where else do you find inspiration?

A: Everywhere really. Galleries. Books. Artists. Walking. Being in nature. Friends. Life! Instagram is a useful tool. The internet gives us the ability to access a whole wealth of imagery.

I love visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which we live near to. The constant desire to find a visual language that communicates how I feel means I’m rarely stuck for inspiration.

Q: Since graduating in 1991, you have maintained a consistent stream of exhibitions and art fairs, both national and international. What have been some career highlights to date?

A: I was invited to paint 12 commissioned paintings for the Belmond Cadogan Hotel in Knightsbridge in 2018, which was such a privilege. Being able to work alongside a group of talented artists to create work for this historic building – which hosted both Oscar Wilde, and Lillie Langtry – was thrilling.

More recently, last year, I worked with Forrest Scott Gallery in Florida, who commissioned 10 bespoke paintings for the Mayo Clinic’s new Oncology unit in the US. This was an amazing project to be a part of, and to contribute to such a healing and restorative environment.

I have worked with many different corporate, as well as private clients. I have especially enjoyed working with my gallerist in Japan, Motoko Kawabata. Working with such a rich diversity of people, and communicating with clients has been joyful. I enjoy the desire to communicate, and the poetry that can come from these exchanges.

Q: We have just published your first K&M limited edition, ‘You Swam To Me’, featuring hand-applied gold foil detailing. What can you tell us about this piece?

A: I’m so excited about publishing my first limited edition. I think it looks beautiful. I drew inspiration from artists such as El Anatsui, the Ghanaian sculptor, and Rosalind Tallmadge, who both use metallic textures in their work. I love how this usage gives us work that is filled with light, and a kinetic energy, through its very nature. I wanted to produce a tapestry of colour and emotion, exploring the ideas of freedom and joy. Energy and life expanding and overflowing from the canvas.

Having the opportunity to add silkscreened gold foil as part of a limited edition print has been joyous! I love how it adds an extra depth and beauty.