FAYBEL

Elaine (Ellie) Nesbitt

Artist Statement

I am a figurative digital painter specializing in imaginative realism, fantastic art, contemporary portraiture and surrealism, with a mission to help pioneer digital painting in the gallery setting worldwide. Memories and daily conversation color my pieces. Lack of social comprehension, from being on the autism spectrum, drove me to portraiture and an immersion in fantasy media that began with fairytale tellings from my grandmother, who was a traditional acrylic painter, incited my interest in fantastic art.

Hello! My name is Ellie.

Ellie Nesbitt is a self-taught, figurative, fantastical, portrait painter, gallery and cover artist working in the digital medium. She currently resides in the Great Lakes lowlands of Ontario, Canada, where she paints in the supine position with her delightful, avian companions. Addled by severe osteoporosis and multiple compression fractures, Ellie uses the digital medium for meditative and expressive release. She paints with a suspended monitor, engaging steadfastly with those who enjoy her creations and follow her journey on social media.

In September 2021, Ellie created FAYBEL to interact with her online audience on Instagram, her main social hub, and, in May 2023, she became a member of the Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory. Ellie will be featured in the upcoming June issue of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine as a member of this listing as well as in a full editorial with the periodical Pepper and page in 365 Art + Magazine's upcoming Flowers & Butterflies and Cats 3 issues. Her recent work Rhiannon & the Skylark was long-listed for the Women United Art Prize Digital Art category. She launched a collection of 21 canvas and fine art prints with iCanvas in January 2024,

Ellie’s contemporary portraits are inspired by a collection of unpublished original fairytale and fantasy narratives–surreal tales of which she works to realize in written, visual and musical expression. Each of her paintings feature compelling expressive eyes, finessed with unique floral and scenic motifs; textural brushwork; and fine detail. She enjoys delving into the realms of imaginative realism, surrealism and fantastic art.

Her digital paintings are sensory symphonies and textural delights distilled from acute tactile experiences and melodious memories–extrapolations from her heightened-sensory life on the autism spectrum.

Ellie’s principal goal is to siphon an aesthetic and essence of studied traditional mediums into the digital medium using textured art surfaces, digital oil and watercolour brushes, dynamic mixing techniques and archival quality giclée printing. She is meticulous with colour accuracy and colorimeter use and paints within a neutral, grey curtained enclosure—a fixed, high CRI room-light installed to persist prevention of any colourcast or unwelcome colour interference. Her printing preference is with Canson and Hahnemuhle papers with no OBAs (optical brighteners), at peak resolution of 720 dpi, on Epson SureColor Printers with her select Canson Certified Lab in Toronto, Canada. Ellie’s actions are made with intent to open up further, future opportunities for gallery affiliation and increase the acceptance of skilled, digital painters in contemporary art exhibitions. To delight collectors, her works are aligned to be showcased as limited-edition prints, embellished with certificates of authenticity and embossed artist seals of approval, or as 1 of 1 digital original archival giclée.

Ellie is the cover artist for Bourbon Penn Issue 28, a zine with prior cover positions allotted to industry veterans, the likes of Ed Binkley and Laura H. Rubin. Her paintings have been featured as inspirational entries for the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize in 2022 and 2023. Since 2022, Ellie’s works have been published in multiple issues and volumes of 365 ART + Magazine, Infected by Art Book, and Marvelous Art Magazine as well as Marvelous Art’s Top 50 Artists to Watch In 2022 & 2023. She was in The Concept Art Association’s first gallery show at Gallery Nucleus in Los Angeles, CA and the "Small Works" group show (Halloween themed) at Curio Art Gallery in Portugal and online. She sold out of Curio Art Gallery’s first completely digital solo collection, "Weird Tales", within two weeks of its online opening in December 2022 and is currently working on a series of paintings for her original fairytale The Tin Princess. A limited-edition, giclée series from this narrative is being run with Quirky Fox Gallery in New Zealand. Ellie is also initiating a limited-edition, signed and numbered, collection with Art Major Gallery, now Nanny Goat Gallery, in California, in line to become their first digital artist as well as Quirky Fox’s first digital painter to run a limited-edition series. 

In the midst of gallery arrangements and periodical publications, Ellie is upstarting a literary call for artists, a resource for skills progression, industry buzz and artist opportunities, JESSO Magazine/Literary Series. Notable institutions, organizations, award-winning artists and industry professionals have already displayed expressed interest in JESSO, which, between recent and forecasted personal surgeries, will require some time in realizing. At present, Ellie is hyper-focused on launching her own digital works and platform in the gallery setting to help support JESSO’s future publication for emerging and inquisitive artists.

Due to her current health circumstance, Ellie is primarily interested in finding further representation via open/limited-edition print series and group exhibition. She is scheduled to be in Nanny Goat Gallery's opening group show "Ephemeral" in June and "Good and Evil" in September as well as Curio Art Gallery's annual September group show "Memoir". This February, she was a part of Marvelous Art Group's online group exhibition "Tenebrosa Deliciae: Art Festival of Love".

Faybelarts@Gmail.Com

Exhibitions

(Coming Soon) 2024 Group Exhibition Good and Evil, Nanny Goat Gallery, Petaluma, CA, USA
(Coming Soon) 2024 Group Exhibition Memoir, Curio Art Gallery, Portugal 
(Coming Soon) 2024 Group Exhibition Ephemeral, Nanny Goat Gallery, Petaluma, CA, USA                                                                                                               
2024 Group Exhibition Tenebrosa Deliciae: Art Festival of Love, Marvelous Art Group, online 
2022 Solo Exhibition Weird Tales, Curio Art Gallery, Portugal (online)
2022 Group Exhibition Small Works Show (Halloween Themed), Curio Art Gallery, Portugal (online)
2022 Group Exhibition The Concept Art Association's First Gallery Show Science Fiction & Fantasy, Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA, USA 

Commisions

2022 Product Review Commission, A Midwinter Night's Dream, UGEE Pen Tablets and Canvas Slice Art Gallery collaborative, Social Media
2022 Gallery Commission, Sofie Marceau, 1 of 1 digital original fine art print 8" by 6.4", Curio Art Gallery, Portugal

Gallery Affiliation & Licenses

iCanvas Exclusive Wall Décor for Canvas & Fine Art Prints                                                                                 Nanny Goat Gallery, Petaluma, California, United States (arranging a limited-edition series & group exhibition "Ephemeral" in June)                                                                                                                                                       Quirky Fox Gallery, Taranaki, New Zealand (consignment series)
Nanny Goat Gallery. Petaluma, CA. USA                                                                                                                 

Education

No Degree: Digital Art - Personal Study
Schoolism - Online Subscription Courses 
2014-09 - 2015-04	 Some College (No Degree): Digital Photography
Niagara College - Welland, ON 
2010-09 - 2012-09	 Some College (No Degree): Near And Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto - Toronto, ON
•	Received Entrance Scholarship
•	Member of Trinity College
2006-09 - 2010-06	 High School Diploma 
Laura Secord Secondary School - St. Catharines, ON

Bibliography

Beautiful Bizarre Magazine (quarterly issue TBA)                                                                                                    Pepper Magazine (full editorial TBA) 
365 Art + Magazine, Cats 3 (pre-publication)                                                                                                                                      365 Art + Magazine, Flowers & Butterflies (pre-publication)
Infected by Art Book Volume 11, edited by Todd Spoor, Bill Cox et al.                                          Nesbitt, Elaine. “Faybel.” 365 ART + Magazine, Cats-2/Docha Agency, no. 52, fall 2023, pp. 40 
Nesbitt, Elaine. “FAYBEL: Ellie Nesbitt.” 365 ART + Magazine, Surreal World/Tattoo, no. 48, summer 2023, pp. 74                                                                                                                                                         Blind Dweller. “Käthe Kollwitz: The Voice of The Unheard.” YouTube, uploaded by @BlindDweller, 12 September 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9-uOhrtAs54                                                                                                                Danijela K. Purssey. “Entry Deadline Extended! 2023 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize.” Beautiful Bizarre Magazine. July 2023: https://beautifulbizarre.net/2023/07/18/entry-deadline-extended-2023-beautiful-bizarre-art-prize/                                                                                                          Elaine Nesbitt. “Ellie Nesbitt Bio.” Concept Art Association, July 2023, https://www.conceptartassociation.com/members/ellie-nesbitt
Elaine Nesbitt . “FAYBEL: Ellie Nesbitt.” Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, May 2023, https://artists.beautifulbizarre.net/2023/05/faybel-ellie-nesbitt/
Marvelous Art, Marvelous Art Magazine, May 2023
Marvelous Art, and Hasret Ozer. Top 50 Artists to Watch in 2022 & 2023. North Haven, CT: Marvelous Art, 2022.
"Magazines Received - November," Locus, November 28, 2022. https://locusmag.com/2022/11/magazines-received-november/
Sam Tomaino. “Bourbon Penn 28, Review.” SFRevu. November 28, 2022. https://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=20012
Bourbon Penn Issue 28, November 2022
Natalia Joruk. "More Amazing Entries! Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2022" Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, August 8, 2022. https://beautifulbizarre.net/2022/08/08/more-entries-beautiful-bizarre-art-prize-2022/
Natalia Joruk. "Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Entry Deadline Extended!" Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, July 19, 2022. https://beautifulbizarreartprize.art/beautiful-bizarre-art-prize-deadline-extended/#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20entries%20for%20the%202022,%5BSydney%2C%20Australia%20time%5D.
Marvelous Art, Marvelous Art Magazine, March 2022
Infected by Art Book Volume 10, edited by Todd Spoor, Bill Cox et al.

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