About | Ella Bril

My name is Ella Bril, I am a dutch painter. I currently live in a Amsterdam. I make large-scale paintings which are often figurative and inspired by people who I encounter in my everyday life. I recreate them on canvas in their own realm, sometimes staring out at the viewer and other times gazing softly into an undefined space. The figures appear alone or in groups, and are surrounded by expansive planes of bright color, abstract imagery, and heavy gestural marks. Themes of nature, movement, and color also surface in my work.

In ways, these figures and their surroundings are rooted in both reality and imagination. The elements of my compositions merge together to form a space that resembles our world but remains slightly elusive. I often think about why we as humans navigate our lives the way we do—what makes us do something or not do something. Humans are fascinating, beautiful, wise, and frustrating; I explore this intrigue through my visual language. I channel both the positive and negative in my paintings; the atmosphere of the final works can be ambiguous, full of both recognizable yet distant imagery.

I bring these characters to life with bold colors and play with perspective. For example, decorative elements in the background are often pushed forward to a place of significance beside a figure, and the dramatic colors I use sometimes serve as subjects in and of themselves.