Nik Ellis

I’ve been painting, drawing, sketching, and making a general mess for as long as I can remember. My Gran was a huge art fan, and I would always sit and watch her for hours, even though I couldn't stand the smell of oil paints. At the age of 6 my parents convinced my gran to give art lessons, to my brother....go figure.

In between school and general child’s play, I would always be sketching and doodling in pads, my parents didn't mind, I guess because it kept me quiet. At school I was never huge on academic studies, I was terrible at Math and English, but loved art. I did well in my GCSE’s, especially art, so when the time came to chose a subject for college, it wasn’t a difficult choice.

Once at college I became quite disillusioned with the whole art world, aware of how pretentious some people can be. This drove me to find other aspects of art, and the art world that I did get on with, the main one being graffiti. With graffiti there isn't a huge crowd of people judging your work in galleries, there's no grand openings or champagne receptions, just the work, and your opinion of it. Artists remain anonymous (unless they want to be known) and that appeals hugely to me.
Once I finished college I went into graphic design as a profession. Again as my lack of academic interest narrowed my options, graphic design seemed a natural progression for me. After working for 3 years at a local newspaper and learning the industry, I left and went travelling to Australia. It was here that I found my current passion, stencil graffiti.

While travelling all over Australia, I stopped in Melbourne, and was absolutely blown away. Not by the city as such, but by the acceptance as graffiti as an art form, and the attitudes of people towards it. At the time I was there, the stencil graffiti scene was just starting to develop. Huge, colourful, bold pieces were in every alley way, covering every wall, and were appreciated by the public. To me, this was the medium to get involved with.

When I returned to England I began speaking to stencil artists, picking up tips and methods to develop my style. Over the past 3 and a half years I have been pushing myself more and more to really see what I can do with this style, and so far I’m feeling pretty ok with my work (ish).Not many people know a lot about what goes into creating a piece. The image is made up of layers of colour. Each layer is hand cut with just a craft knife, out of 300gsm card. Depending on how detailed a piece is, this can take a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, or a few months!! Once each layer is cut, you stick down your stencil, spray-paint a colour on, let it dry, lay down another stencil, spray and so on....

Some stencils can be only 1 layer, others can be as many as 100, it’s all dependant on the level of detail your after. For me gaining photorealism is the main appeal, making people do a double take on your work when they realize its done with spray paint always brings a smile.

The use of spraypaint in my work allows for a range of pre-made colours that normally I couldn't achieve, its also the most versatile and hardy medium I’ve ever worked with, can’t say I’ve ever seen an oil painting or watercolour last for years outside in the cold and rain.

I’ve only entered into a handful of exhibitions, a big supporter of the Sub-Urban shows in Cambridge - with my third year exhibiting coming up. I have also just wrapped up my first semi-solo show (exhibiting with Clinton Croson), which was a great success personally, and has given me plenty of drive for the future. Another achievement for me is that I am being included in the Melbourne Stencil Festival 2008, which is recognized as the largest stencil show in the world, with only a handful of UK artists being accepted - this begins in August.

The majority of my work doesn't have ‘deeper meaning’ to it, I try to do art just for the enjoyment of it. If one of my works on the street or in a gallery can brighten up someone's day, then ive achieved all I could ever want, and could give up tomorrow.

Email: visualdirt@ hotmail.co.uk