Elly Hadjipateras: 30 New Paintings

This exhibition is a selection of 30 paintings completed over 2 years by Elly Hadjipateras. It is a collection of representational work linked not by subject matter but by an emphasis on colour and light and a desire to give people pleasure. A few years ago, a dear aunt was bed bound and in the final stages of cancer. One of Elly’s paintings was hanging on the wall of her room and the sick lady told her that the painting gave her peace and an escape from the pain. This is ultimately the reason Elly paints, to bring happiness to the viewer and for the interplay of light, movement and colour to play on the viewers’ senses in a pure and positive way.

Elly is of Greek origin, born, educated and raised in London. She is largely self-taught and has been painting and drawing since before she could write. However, after obtaining the lowest possible mark for her Art O level she studied English at Warwick University and did nothing creative till her mid-twenties when she enrolled in a short course at Chelsea School of Art. After being told there by a teacher that she would never be an artist she decided that that was exactly what she was going to be.

Initially a portrait painter, Elly’s reputation grew beyond her circle of friends and family, she was soon in demand and the commissions flooded in. For the past few years she has been painting anything that catches her eye; there is no consistent theme except an emphasis on fleeting movement, intense colour and the play of light and shadow. She has a particular interest in dancers but does not approach the subject in an idealistic soft focus manner portraying the dancers as masters of their art but instead she draws little emphasis on the face or expression but strives to depict the spirit of the dance through repetition, the flurry and flash of swirling costumes not afraid to capture the dancers in less than elegant positions.

Elly has exhibited for many consecutive years with Art for Youth at the Royal College of Art and also numerous times at Lloyd’s Art Group at Lloyd’s of London. She won the sponsors’ prize at Artists and Illustrators Magazine’s Artist of the Year competition at the Mall galleries and appeared on the cover of Paint magazine in March 2018. She has been shortlisted for the New English Art Club’s yearly exhibition and is at the moment shortlisted for the Society of All Artists Artist of the Year. Her last solo exhibition was at the Hellenic Centre in London.