Fine Artist and Northern Art graduate Ellie Rodwell-Bullock is featured in the exhibition ‘People’ at Cambridge’s Gallerie V, a youth gallery that “aims to to support, inspire, and educate the local youth community, as well as to showcase the talent of young emerging artists from all over the UK. By providing a platform for artists to express their creativity, we aim to create a community which enables young individuals to showcase and develop their creative potential.”

The gallery aims to do this through a range of open calls “We’re always on the hunt for more young artists and are slowly building connections with schools and universities across the UK. We always hold open call exhibitions for young emerging artists aged 14-25, and will announce our winter open call (deadline in late october) soon.”

Commenting on Ellie’s work the curator said, “We’re delighted to show Ellie’s work, it’s beautiful colour palette and immersive detail captures contemporary domesticity.”

Ellie applied for the exhibition through one of their open calls, “through the Instagram page Starving Artists Opportunities, which I have found to be a really easy and useful resource for finding events and open calls to focus on since leaving university. I submitted a painting of mine from 2022, and was very excited to hear that it was accepted into the exhibition ‘People’. The work I included is Jacob at Night (2022), an oil painting on wood which is part of a wider body of work exploring the depiction of domesticity and intimate spaces in painting. The exhibition runs from the 15th of September to the 26th of November at Gallerie V, Cambridge. Opening night is from 6pm.”

Speaking of working on projects since graduation Ellie said “As for other projects, I have a mini studio set up among the gym equipment in the garage but its not always a comfortable space, so I have started using digital means of creating work/testing ideas. This has been really helpful in making sure I stay in the mindset of creating work even while its not easy accessible. I still have some technical skills to learn with this, but it’s been very fun to get used to. I am also continuing to draw from life with oil pastels and this has been a really good exercise to generate new ideas for the future.”

In regards to how our BA (Hons) Fine Art degree programme helped prepare Ellie for life after graduation she said “I have found that the course was a wonderful experience and that it definitely prepared me to work independently, both in the arts industry and beyond. I wouldn’t have had the confidence in myself or my work  to apply for these open calls and events without that prior experience, and it really affirmed for me that I am working in the right field.

I also think that working at university in that studio environment gives you a great work ethic where I now know how to develop my practice at home, as well as opportunities to hone your communication skills to a variety of audiences. That is extremely important when applying for these opportunities, and I am very grateful to have had that experience.”

Her advice to future students is to “discuss your work and your practice with as many people as you can because talking about your work confidently is so important and you never know how those conversations may help you develop.”

You can find out more about the exhibition on the Gallerie V website and social media:

@gallerievcambridge on instagram

https://www.galleriev.com/Live/index.php

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