Ellis Thomas-Pam

Exhibition Statement

Intimidation, trauma, the ways we tackle it by not burying it and reconnecting with the positives within our lives to progress forward is explored in the work. The paintings use a visual language developed out of observation and intuitive feeling to hammer home the subject of choice and the emotive feelings that come with it. The paintings animate a stimulating visual image of substance that captures all the human sensitivities. They start from an essential personal experience, but through the process of making the paintings they transform and become open to alternative readings by the viewer. The paintings hold a sense of endeavour through the process of making, this sense of struggle to collage multiple expressive marks with draftsmanship creates a dynamic tension between the two. Stitching brings these collage paintings together into one fabric piece unstretched, showcasing fragility as if the paintings are torn from the book of life. The work begins with a triptych, the first one, How’s This Going to Affect the Young One, incapsulates all the emotions we feel when parents get divorced, breaking the family up and forcing children to grow up to fast with a sense of resistance which is often bottled up along with processing a wide range of confusing emotions. The Second triptych Where the Dogs Roam captures the core emotions felt towards how women feel when subjected to the intimidation of being outside at night, this is Ellis using his emotions felt in reaction to his friends and family being affected by this sexist inequality against women. The last painting On A High Note, I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside ends on a lighter note. Personalised by the artist and painted to give a sense of hope, the subject of this painting explores what we might use to bring a sense of positivity to balance out all the negative attributes that life throws at us, in Ellis’s case he has bound himself to the seaside and the positive childhood memories associated with it.

List of works (from left to right)

Contact:     Instagram: @ellist_pam_art    Email: ethomaspam@btinternet.com

Website:     https://ethomaspam.wixsite.com/mysite