FAYBEL

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 was featured in the June 2025 issue of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine as a member of this listing. Recently, she was published in Women United ART MAGAZINE: Issues IX and XI, and in 365 Art + Magazine's Flowers & Butterflies/Cats 3, along with four pages of the Japanese periodical's People Creating the 21st Century-8: All About Art vs. All About Animals. She has a newly published interview with Bold Journey Magazine on Confidence and an upcoming blog post interview on the Wacom website. In mid November, her first written piece on digital gallery practice was published with Hyperlux Magazine. 

Her work "Rhiannon & the Skylark" was longlisted for the 2023 Women United Art Prize Digital Art category. "Mono no aware" was also longlisted for the art prize's 2024 Painting & Drawing category and "Gilded Letters" and "The Final Request" have been shortlisted for the Painting & Drawing category once again in 2025. In 2024, "Blue Porcelain" was selected as a Top 150 High Art Contest Finalist and, in 2025, "The Final Request" was selected for inclusion in Infected by Art Book Volume 13. FAYBEL has also been in Infected by Art Vol. 10 with her digital piece "The Dream Keeper" and in Vol. 11 with "Little Wolf". Ellie was a High Art Top 150 finalist once more in 2025 with her painting "Many Faces of the Dreamer". 

FAYBEL launched a collection of 21 canvas and fine art prints with iCanvas in January 2024 and in July 2024 was added to their spotlight collection Otherworldly Opulence. In May 2024, Ellie joined the Women United Artist Directory. By request, she has approved the design for a display of her painted works in North York, Toronto at Colour Systems Inc. In late September of this year, Ellie joined the Fort Erie Arts Council and was commissioned by renowned tablet company Wacom for two upcoming influencer partnership projects, the first being painting of the artwork "The Lost Lenore" and a review of the Wacom Intuos Pro M 2025 drawing tablet, closing with an interview on their community blog "Crafting a Modern Fairytale Career: FAYBEL on Art, Mythology, and Digital Practice". 

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. Many 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. Ellie's illustrations are primarily from one of three original IP: The Ragdoll Princess, The Tin Princess and Timbretock, her latest romantasy narrative.

Ellie's 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 Infinity and Hahnemuhle papers with no OBAs (optical brighteners), at peak resolution of 720 dpi, using Epson SureColor Printers with her select Canson Certified Lab in Toronto, Canada, Color Systems Inc. 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 and the fine art world. To delight collectors, her works are showcased as limited-edition prints, verified with certificates of authenticity and embossed artist seals of approval, or as 1 of 1 digital original archival giclée on watercolour and specialty fine art cotton paper.

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. Four of her paintings ("The Covenant of the Rose", "Little Wolf", "Kiu", and "Timbretock") have been featured as inspirational entries for the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize from 2022 to 2024. 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 fairytales. A limited-edition, giclée series from The Tin Princess was run with Quirky Fox Gallery in New Zealand. Ellie is Nanny Goat Gallery's (California, USA) first digital artist as well as Quirky Fox’s first digital painter to run a limited-edition series (ran until April 2025). 

In the midst of gallery arrangements and periodical publications, Ellie is upstarting an initiative for artists, a resource for skills progression, industry buzz and artist opportunities, JESSO. 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 sub-initiative to promote emerging and inquisitive (digital) artists in the gallery realm.

Ellie is currently working with 365 Art + Magazine, acting as Chief Guest Editor of an upcoming TOKUSHU B specialty issue of the Japanese periodical, Art of the Phoenix: Path to the Inner Self. She is scheduled to be the primary cover artist in this future issue with her fantastical digital portrait art. 

Due to her current health circumstance, Ellie is primarily interested in finding further representation via open/limited-edition print series and group exhibition. In February 2024, she was a part of Marvelous Art Group's online showcase "Tenebrosa Deliciae: Art Festival of Love". FAYBEL was sole digital artist at Nanny Goat Gallery's opening group show "Ephemeral" in July 2024 and was also in the downtown Petaluma gallery's group exhibition "Good and Evil" in September through to October 2024, during which she was featured as the title piece in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine's key article on the show. Ellie was in Curio Art Gallery's annual September 2024 group exhibition "Memoir" and at "Niagara Falls Night of Art" at The Exchange in Niagara Falls, Canada. Just prior in August 2024, her painting "Call Me Maybe" was on view with the Women United Art Movement for their virtual showcase "Stronger Together" and her work was once again on display for "Deck the Halls" at the Exchange in November 2024.

In April 2025, FAYBEL participated in Curio Art Gallery's online "Penumbra 10 Year Anniversary Dark Art Show". She was at "The Mystical Market" in March and Niagara's "Valentine's Market" in February, both hosted by St. Catharines' The Gallery. Ellie was Poetic Tiger Gallery's inaugural digital painter at their group show "Grimm Allegory" in Boise, Idaho, USA (online), from July 19th to August 15th. This spurred the writing of the article on her gallery practice as a digital artist for Hyperlux Magazine "The Anatomy of Gallery Process for Digital: Is digital painting valuable to collectors?" Her second solo exhibition "FAYBEL Eras" is was in Downtown St. Catharines, Ontario at Mahtay Cafe & Lounge, from December 2025 through to January 10, 2026. In the month of November, she was in show at Poetic Tiger Gallery for their group exhibition "Yours Truly". FAYBEL was represented by her family at "Niagara Falls Night of Art" again in 2025 on September 18th and was a part of the "Stronger Together | Summer Edition 2025" group exhibition with the Women United Art Movement (online). Her work was at "Christmas on the Ridge" at The Hub & Gallery in Ridgeway, Ontario, Canada on December 5th & 6th and will continue to be showcased onsite in Ridgeway with the Fort Erie Arts Council throughout 2026.

Ellie has assembled a group of 8 professional digital painters from around the globe for future group exhibition experiences: Tero Porthan, Sara Lee, Eli Birdie, Justine Florentino, Farnoosh Aryan, Damjan Gjorgievski and Dani Julian, They will be joined by the popular digital portrait painter Yaşar Vurdem for their first professional gallery exhibition experience online, hosted by Poetic Tiger Gallery and gallerist Aunia Kahn in July/August of 2026. The art event will be published in Hyperlux Magazine's summer digital issue with tentative artist interviews on the Hyperlux Blog. Their initiative DAE (Digital Artist Exhibitions), an extension of the JESSO spirit, is designed to promote the digital medium in galleries and fine art and to define protocols for digital gallery process on a global scale. Yaşar Vurdem and FAYBEL will be releasing a joint artwork project within the first half of 2026, prior to DAE's summer exhibition. In tandem, Ellie is currently acting as key co-ordinator for the digital artist collective's first gallery showcase, seeking out sponsors for social media support, in addition to Hyperlux Gallery and Magazine, and up to 30 professional digital painters for exhibition participation.

In late 2027, Ellie will be returning to Mahtay Cafe & Lounge in St. Catharines, ON, Canada for a second solo exhibition, due to overwhelmingly positive feedback on "FAYBEL Eras" from the local Niagara community and on social media.

Faybelarts@Gmail.Com