Written by Anna Itkonen
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Ellen McKenna is a Melbourne-based abstract artist, pattern designer and interior consultant.
“I paint abstract works that are about colour and balance, movement and proportion. I am not trying to tell a story; it is about how I feel and the emotion the viewer takes from it. I hope it makes them feel a bit of a zing, a little bit of energy.”
Ellen is a surface pattern designer and has always had a love for fashion, fabrics, performing arts, and anything and everything cultural. She has described her paintings as a culmination of all of her love for culture and creativity.
“I started as a pattern designer, and everything was quite small; the surfaces and the shapes. I would licence my digital patterns to commercial companies, but I also wanted to create something more tangible,” Ellen described. “Four years ago, I got the urge to get bigger, and I wanted to paint, so I painted. I could go big or small and let my emotions take me, and I had control over people seeing and accessing my work.”
Balance No.5 | 53.1 x 63cm, Acrylic on canvas
Ellen’s creative process is primarily led by colour, followed by shape. “Sometimes I start with a plan for a colour, a more traditional colour scheme. At other times I am inspired by a colour I have seen in a book, on the street, or in a gallery.”
Closer to You III | 76.5 x 61cm, Acrylic on canvas
Whether her colour selection is based on a plan or is more intuitive and emotion-led, her canvasses often have heavier, darker colours at the bottom, with lighter and brighter colours building the composition on top. The darker colours form bigger and bolder shapes, while as the colours lighten, the shapes tend to get smaller.
Balance No.10 | 76.2 x 100cm, Acrylic on canvas
“The Colour spectrum exhibition work is quite minimalistic, and they are big shapes on the canvas. This is more thought out on the canvas and not as intuition-based as some of my other works. It is about balance and how everything is balancing off each other.”
Balance No.7 | 60.2 x 60.2cm, Acrylic on canvas
“I am inspired by architecture, the shapes of architecture, and in particular mid-century modernism and Bauhaus. It is about the feeling I get from [these], not a need to copy them. I get inspired by people and what they do. I never wish to copy their work; I wish to express the feeling.”
Tide | 61 x 91.5cm, Acrylic on canvas
Ellen doesn’t doodle; she works quickly. As she has described, she is impatient and wants to finish a painting in one sitting. “That is the way creativity runs with me, but of course, I sit with a painting and work on it until I am satisfied with what I am looking at.”
Balance No.6 | 53.1 x 63cm, Acrylic on canvas
Ellen used to paint around her kitchen table and work around family schedules and dinner times. She would sometimes hang the paintings on the wall and work on them like that. “Maybe that is where my quick pace comes from,” Ellen said. “Now I have converted a garage into a studio. Even though the studio allows me to take my time, the process doesn’t seem to take any longer. It is just more convenient.”
Resting | 120 x 90cm, Acrylic on canvas
“Art is an easy way to bring colour and emotion into people’s lives; homes, workspaces, public spaces. I cannot stress enough how that can influence people’s mindset and mental wellness. Art is that little bit of colour in your life every morning or beauty you see at work every day. It has the power to change the feel of a place or time completely.”
