One of Ella Guru’s paintings, ‘Sirens’, 115 x 170cm oil on canvas

Sneak preview of Ella Guru art commission

HOT’s Sharon Rhodes will reveal artist Ella Guru’s latest paintings for the first time this Sunday evening in a live broadcast. Here, she shares her passion for this international artist who happens to live in our coastal town.

This Sunday evening at 6pm I am going to share a live broadcast where painter Ella Guru will unveil her latest six commissions for an art collector in Prague who regularly buys her work. The show is called “Czech Collection 2022”.

Ella, originally from America, moved to Hastings in 2013 from London with her husband Sexton and daughter. In 1999 she became one of the original members of the Stuckist Art Movement. Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson. It promotes figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017 the first group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.

Ella’s art has always excited me. This is the 9th year she has painted commissions for this particular art collector and in each painting she uses friends and members of the community as models. There is so much detail in every painting with colour leaping out at you and intricate details to absolutely everything in the picture.

To see this year’s commissions you will need to tune in on to “Czech Collection 2022” on Sunday via Facebook with the link provided here. Ella will not unveil them until then but this article shows two of her previous paintings. You will notice our famous Rock A Nore cliffs in “Sirens” and may even recognise a few of our Hastings darlings  in the scene.

‘Obie’ 45 x 35 cm, oil on canvas

Ella is often commissioned by local Hastings characters to paint their portraits. Pictured here is a fabulous portrait of one of our cheekiest fishermen – my partner Obie. She completed this portrait during lockdown working from a photograph.

Ella is given a brief by her collector in Prague – often including a list of objects to be included and a theme, then her work begins. Her Czech commissions take up most of her year – when she’s not paddle boarding or walking her dog, Crumpet, in the woods.

This Facebook live ‘reveal’ is not to be missed – so grab yourself a cuppa or a little tipple and prepare to be immersed into the world of Ella Guru. The full link to click on is here: https://facebook.com/events/s/ella-guru-czech-collection-202/5654911831261980/

You can see more of Ella Guru’s art on her her website, and you can read more about Guru’s artwork in this Hastings Online Times article from 2014.

Also in: Arts News