Ella Smith is an artist and designer based in south Wales. Ella specialises in woven textile art and hand-pulled screen prints, and her work is inspired by her fascination with colour, structure and movement. These influences are evident in her handmade designs.
Fluidity and containment, combined with sporadically placed colour, provides scope for visual and textual anomalies. Colour interaction is an integral part of Ella’s work and she is fascinated with how the warp and weft interconnect creating a visual story similar to that of paint on a canvas. She is inspired by the abstract movement Hard-Edge Painting which is found in the works of Bridgette Riley, Ellsworth Kelly and Josef Albers, particularly the crisp definitions of tone and colour.
Throughout her woven art pieces, Ella experiments with the interplay of colour and movement using fine silks, mercerised cottons, the transparency of monofilament and hand manipulated rope loops.
Ella graduated with a BA in Textiles from Carmarthen School of Art, followed by a Masters from the Royal College of Art specialising in Woven Textiles in 2021. During her studies she was awarded a scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Weavers.
Ella is a member of the Makers Guild in Wales as of 2023.