This work explores transformation and liminality, where the human, animal, and mythic converge. A figure exchanges masks with a hound, their braids interwoven, while nocturnal moths and bats (creatures drenched in superstition) hover as omens. The scene embodies a state of flux, neither fully human nor fully creature, reflecting my ongoing interest in folklore as a lens to examine ecology, memory, and the body.
In dialogue with ArtEvol 2025’s theme of “Voices from the Undefined,” the painting situates identity in an unsettled space: shifting between self and other, fact and fable, the seen and the sensed. At the same time, it echoes my own trajectory as an artist: one year after graduation, I find myself in a similar state of becoming, still evolving, still refining, testing the boundaries of my practice and searching for new forms of expression. By merging myth with anatomy and landscape, I seek to construct contemporary visual myths that probe where the human ends and the non-human begins, and how evolution, both personal and collective, might be imagined through symbolic, hybrid forms.
Ellie Davies (b. 2002, North England) is a visual artist based in Cumbria, in the Lake District. Working primarily in oil painting, her practice explores the intersections of folklore, superstition, and memory, often depicting hybrid figures that blur the boundary between human and creature.
Davies earned her BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton in 2024. Since graduating, she has exhibited widely with institutions including Delphian Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, Mall Galleries, and Arteom Gallery (Times Square). In the same year, she was awarded the Mawddach Graduate Award Residency and shortlisted for both the Freelands Painting Prize and the University of Brighton Graduate Award.
Her work has been featured in publications such as Tate Etc. (Issue 64, Winter 2024) and Frieze (Issue 247), and her paintings have been selected for book covers with Page Street Publishing Co. Rooted in the landscapes of her rural upbringing, Davies’s paintings craft surreal, symbolic worlds that merge myth with ecology, geology, and anatomy, modern visual fables where nature is alive, watchful, and deeply participatory.
