Ellie Davies

(b. 2002, North England)

Based in Cumbria’s Lake District, Ellie Davies creates oil paintings that inhabit the threshold between myth and material, human and animal. Her hybrid figures draw from folklore, superstition, and natural history, existing in landscapes that feel both ancient and familiar.

Raised among mountains, lakes, and forests, Davies developed an early fascination with nature’s duality, its gentleness and its unease. These environments return in her work as sentient spaces, shaped by memory and archetype. Animals, especially dogs, appear as recurring companions and symbols of instinct and loyalty, grounding the surreal within the personal.

Mythology, for Davies, is not a form of escape but a lens for understanding the interdependence of body and landscape. Bones mirror bedrock; rivers echo circulatory systems; animals become reflections of human emotion and mythic consciousness. She often incorporates organic materials such as seawater and river water into her preparatory sketches, allowing the physical presence of place to leave subtle marks beneath the surface of her paintings.

Through this fusion of narrative and matter, Davies constructs contemporary myths, visual fables that explore the porous boundary between the real and the imagined. Her worlds invite viewers into liminal spaces where instinct, memory, and ecology converge, revealing nature not as backdrop but as active participant: watchful, sentient, and alive.