Documented studio visits with London-based artists - we pop round to explore their creative spaces, have a cuppa, and chat about practice, process, and all the behind-the-scenes!
Eleanor Cowell
Eleanor Cowell
This week we had the absolute joy of visiting Eleanor Cowell in her studio! @eljoart
There's something brilliant about a space where you can feel the joy of making the second you walk in. Eleanor's paintings have this knack for pulling you straight back to childhood - running through fields, birds tweeting, that hazy dreamy quality of endless summer days...
There's this lovely calmness that flows through Eleanor's work - a proper zen energy. But then some pieces surprise you with an eerie edge, where those glowing motifs become like nostalgic safety nets or familiar landmarks. We're drawn to how Eleanor unpicks what these repeated elements might mean to her, always keeping the exploration fun and inviting - you feel like you're discovering something alongside her.
Her surfaces are properly lush - all glossy and glazed like iced doughnuts or fresh ice rinks. Working with oils and acrylics, Eleanor builds up these layers that seem to hold light just beneath the surface. Currently at City and Guilds Art School completing her MA, you can see this exploration happening in real time. Makes you want to reach out and touch them, and there's this sense of movement everywhere, like there's always a gentle breeze running through her canvases.
What aspect of art-making keeps you coming back despite all the challenges?
“Nothing will ever be the same as it is now, everything is constantly in a state of change and it’s so interesting to translate that visually. Art has a magical quality of reinventing itself as contextual backdrops change in a way that other mediums don’t quite equate. As people we seek consistency and stability, which in a time where technology, politics etc change so quickly it’s a very exciting time to try and visually capture the theatrics of the chaotic present day.”
What practices or rituals help you reconnect with your inspiration?
“Breathing and meditation. Meditation to me is a bracket of whatever lets you connect back into yourself, not just sitting with our eyes closed trying not to think - looking at the sky or nature, running or laying down. We forget we have bodies, we spend so much time in our own heads it’s funny to re-situate yourself in the air around you and remember we have fingers and toes. This re-centering inspires the places my work describes, distant spaces to escape to and get lost in.”
What aspects of London life find their way into your creative process?
“London is conflicting, I think we all have a love/ hate relationship with its intensity. It’s beautiful to find the calm here though, it’s an incredibly energetic city with endless layers of histories and diversity, stories being rewritten all the time. Many people give a lot of themselves to be able to live here; the mechanics of sustaining a life in London is a mental, physical challenge, but it also holds so much opportunity and inspiring depth. If you can stop to appreciate the bones of the place, even in the slimy depths of the tube, there’s a lot to uncover. The journey into that pause is what I seek to relay in my work, finding the places that connect you to yourself. The intensity of London is easy to get stuck in, but it reminds me that all I really need is already in me.”
What's the most valuable thing you've learned from another artist in your community?
“Natalie Charles, an incredible soul I used to have the pleasure of sharing a studio with, says the art comes first. To me that means making sure my life is balanced as much as possible; taking care of myself, resting, eating well and also not making art and enjoying life - which all enables me to show up to the studio and transfer my energy into the work properly. Everything contributes to the creative practice, and so we should respect and appreciate what our bodies do outside of the studio too. The best I can do is all that I can in that moment - in order for that to happen, I need to take care of myself as a person first.”
What's your studio guilty pleasure that keeps you going during long work sessions?
“I love pop music like the Vengaboys or Pitbull to re-energise. I’ve just put in a curtain to hide my dancing, not that it stopped me before haha. I’ve also been listening to the Court of Thorns and Roses series but it’s a bit too distracting at times.”
Eleanor's work sits in this sweet spot between nostalgia and something more mysterious - there's a sense that she's painting from a place we all recognize but can't quite name. Her canvases feel like they're holding onto fleeting moments, those in-between times when you're not quite a child anymore but the world still holds that particular kind of magic. There's something deeply honest about how she approaches painting. Her studio feels like a place where curiosity is encouraged, where that inner sense of play gets to dance alongside serious artistic investigation.
If you could have any piece of art, what would it be and why?
“One of Monet’s panoramic water lily pond paintings. I want to swim in them and ask them for advice.”
The way Eleanor talks about her repeated motifs - those glowing elements that appear across her work - you get the sense she's as interested in discovering their meaning as we are. It's that kind of openness that makes her work feel alive, like it's still becoming something rather than being fixed in place.
We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting Eleanor's work in our upcoming show At the Door at Safehouse in Peckham this July.
What Eleanor's up to:
Clearance Fundraiser sale of illustration pieces to raise money for aid distributor for families affected by the war in Gaza - available online via DM, Etsy or in person next Saturday 21st at Bow Arts Festival
Exhibition 19th-22nd at Marylebone Gallery, PV 19th
Sober Circle Crit Group: a monthly, online, cross-medium crit-group for anyone seeking feedback on their projects, meet a new creative community or learn about other mediums! @sobercircle_
