Into the Artist's World with Ellie Lonsdale

Where are you from, and how does your background affect your work?

I grew up in Bath, Somerset. My parents are landscape designers and I feel very lucky that we spent most of our weekends walking - the woodlands at Stourhead, Dorset, the Brecon Beacons. My dad grew up in the Peak District and we often visited our grandparents in Derbyshire; I have lots of memories of Chatsworth and the russety heath there. We’d get out all year round, irrespective of the weather - I have memories of lots of soggy picnics with boiled eggs and carrot sticks.

I love the feeling of being immersed in a landscape. Now I live in London and crave long rainy walks and the feeling of driving home in a damp car with steamed up windows! In my drawings, the aim is to capture not only the visual experience of landscape, but the sensory side too - something about the temperature, humidity and mood of a place.

Picture books were a big part of childhood. My grandma was a librarian and we used to visit her at work, she’d give us the old retired library books. My brothers and I spent a lot of time at our local library going through the picture books, and mum would read to us most nights before bed. This informed my interest in storytelling and inspired me to study illustration at university.

Narratives run through my work, I build up stories in my head and imagine there’s a journey unfolding as I draw.

I have two brothers who are both very creative - Will is a graphic designer and Jules is a fashion designer. We were always encouraged to draw growing up. As a kid, I spent most my time drawing characters and making up stories, and I remember my brothers making comics and illustrating battle scenes. My mum is a great craftsman and used to stay up late after work sewing epic costumes for school mufti days. Her mum, my Nana, was a nurse and also a talented seamstress. She designed the most beautiful quilts and embroideries; she once made an embroidered rendition of The Kiss by Klimt that now hangs in my mum’s living room.

I am drawn to pattern, texture and textiles. I started drawing on linen and cotton a couple of years ago and I enjoy the tactility of it, in particular how oil pastels and coloured pencils respond to the different textures of the fabric.

Who are your biggest artistic influences and heroes - five please

My Nana was from Merthyr Tydfil and was a fan of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, I feel particularly moved by his depictions of wild and brooding landscapes. At uni, I made a triptych of illustrations based on Thomas’ short story, The Enemies. The story reveals an intersection between mystical and earth-bound worlds, and I love the rhythm of the words and the rich description of the landscape. We have my Nana’s record at home of Dylan Thomas reading Under Milk Wood - it’s a bit crackly and I always found it both entrancing and creepy. I think there’s something really special about how evocative Dylan Thomas’ writing is.

It’s hard to narrow it down, but my other top artistic influences are: Pierre Bonnard, Sylvia Wishart, Joan Eardley and Camille Pissarro.

Last year, I came across Nour Jaouda’s textiles and I keep coming back to them.

What first made you want to pursue art as a path?

I was academic at school and couldn’t decide what pathway to go down, I really enjoyed Spanish and science alongside art, and I was considering studying medicine. But my older brother had a brilliant time on his Art Foundation course and it piqued my interest. So I parked the medicine applications and enrolled on an Art Foundation course. I’d never heard of illustration before, but I quickly became excited by the potential to design children’s picture books.

How do your interests outside of art fuel your creative work?

Being outside and experiencing landscapes in different ways is my biggest source of inspiration. I started cycling at university in Falmouth. I’d spend hours going along to the Helford passage and finding nice coves to draw from. I picked up gig rowing too, and I loved the wildness of being out on the sea and being exposed to the Cornish weather. I am lucky to live near an ancient woodland, which is my favourite running spot. I find it a cathartic place for processing ideas for drawings. I sketch there regularly; it feels special to experience how the woodland changes through the seasons and over time.

I’ve been on a few walking trips recently with my partner. We walked 860km of the Camino del Norte in 2024 and hiked a section of the Via Francigena through Tuscany earlier this year. I took my sketchbook with me and found some lovely drawing spots. Being immersed in landscape for a sustained period of time makes me notice more about my surroundings - I find I become more attuned to light, patterns and small things like insects and orchids.

I also teach on the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Drawing School. The process of designing lesson plans fuels my research into different artists, creative practices and techniques. I am inspired by the students’ imaginative thinking and their interesting, expressive and surprising drawings.

How would you describe your artistic process from start to finish?

It depends if I am working on an illustration commission or my own drawing practice. I spend a lot of time drawing from observation in my sketchbook.

My drawing and printmaking practice is largely influenced by landscapes and coastlines. I enjoy returning to the same location over time, using sketchbooks to document moments, compositions and moods. The work evolves in the studio as a fusion of visual notes from the sketchbook and my memory, predominantly smaller-scale pastel and coloured pencil drawings on linen, as well as etchings and monoprints.

My freelance illustration work has a few more stages: I analyse the brief and research the subject, provide provisional ‘rough’ illustrations for feedback, before moving onto final colour artworks. I create layers of drawings using various traditional materials (on a light-box), and refine the colours and composition on Photoshop.

Tell me about your favourite medium and why you chose it.

I started working with coloured pencils and oil pastels on the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School. I find that coloured pencils are compatible with my drawing approach, in particular the flexibility of layering - and erasing - colours and marks to create tonal contrast. I love the vivacity of colour with oil pastels, the variety of marks and the surface texture they create.

Also, printmaking. I enjoy the painterly nature of monoprinting and the more structured stages of etching. I like the surprise of revealing a print off the press and find it easier to feel satisfied with aprint than a drawing. I think it’s because there are so many variables with printmaking, so there’s an uncontrolled element to the outcome which is exciting. 

How do you know when a specific piece of art is finished?

I have to take a step back once I begin to feel more tentative about adding marks. Often, I have to put a drawing to one side and come back to it after a few days. I make more work that goes wrong than pieces I am happy with! I think this is a key part of the process though, as artworks that don’t turn out well frequently act as guides for future projects.