She (A2 Limited Edition Print) Ed. 25 of 50

‘She’ is the first artwork in a series which explores the beauty of the female figure from a different perspective. The lines, the crevasses, the shadows, the differences we all wear.

It all began when I was on a scroll (an instagram scroll) and realised that I'd just admired the bodies of two different females for entirely different reasons to what society may in a more mainstream way value in a photograph of a female. This began my thinking that often we are drawn to the actual outline of a figure and whether it falls into what we critique as 'desirable'. What I'd instead just done was admire how the shadows fell across figures of different form and figures held in different positions and how these contrasts intrigued the viewer and changed the whole perception of the image.

There began the project of drawing something which denied the viewer the traditional silhouette of a female figure and instead drew the viewer in, away from the negative space surrounding the figure. The eye is first drawn to the light dancing along her skin and then led around the figure with the angles of shadow and changes in gradient. The viewer is invited to explore the folds, textures and beauty of ’She’ herself, rather than getting lost in perceiving whether she is 'desirable' from figure alone.

'She' is only available as a Limited Edition Print in A3 or A2 size.

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My full name is Eleanor Louise Killen so it is my initials that spell ELK. I loved art from a very young age (often splattering the walls of my parent's home with paint) and decided when I was about three that 'elk' was how I was going to sign my art. I'm based in Exmouth, WA, where the red dirt meets the lush turquoise of the Indian Ocean and Ningaloo reef. However, I haven't always lived here. I grew up in the dry scrub of the Victorian bush overlooking green rolling dairy hills. Quite the contrast to where I live now, but I think it all contributes to the art I make today. To further the contrast, I studied at the University of Melbourne, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the cultural hub of Australia. I believe these contrasts make a strong appearance in my artwork with the layering of different thicknesses of black ink felt tip pens and gouache to create majority of my works.