Is Moon the Artist’s Most Loyal Muse? | Ellie Eveleigh
Creativity allows us to experience the world differently to pause, to dream, and to feel the quiet magic that surrounds even the simplest moments. It reminds us that there is beauty to be found not only in the grand and extraordinary but also in the small, fleeting details of life. It invites us to stop, look, and reflect, to feel and imagine in ways that words alone often cannot capture.
At Arts to Hearts Project, we celebrate the artists who create these transformative experiences. This week, for our Best of Art World series, we had the joy of interviewing Ellie Eveleigh, an acrylic painter and fine line blackwork artist whose work captures the sublime beauty of landscapes and the dreamlike calm of imagined worlds.
Ellie’s journey into art began in her teens, when the fantastical landscapes of video games sparked a deep desire to recreate that same sense of awe and escapism on canvas. Since then, her practice has evolved into a body of work defined by softness, light, and atmosphere where mountains are not just subjects, but symbols of stillness, strength, and wonder.
Her paintings blur the line between reality and imagination, with snow, shadow, and luminous moons giving each scene a surreal yet deeply calming quality. Balancing freedom and precision, she shifts seamlessly between the intuitive brushwork of her mountain landscapes and the measured accuracy of her city scenes. What remains constant is her ability to draw viewers into a moment of reflection, inviting them to connect not just with her art, but with the feelings it awakens.
In this interview, Ellie shares her journey, her inspirations, and the delicate choices that bring her serene, reflective landscapes to life. Let’s step into her world and discover how her art inspires, moves, and opens new ways to experience the beauty of landscapes.
Q1. Can you share how your journey into art first began? What moments or early influences that made you want to pick up a brush?
Being artistic is a prominent trait in my family, so since a very young age I was creating, mostly illustrative drawings. It was actually during my GCSEs when I was 16 I found a love for painting mountainous landscapes. I played an open world fantasy video game called Skyrim for the first time, and I had never felt such a connection to the dramatic landscapes and the escapism exploring in them made me feel. I decided then I too wanted to create these scenes and feelings for myself and others, so that’s when I started to paint mountainous landscapes.
Q2. Your paintings have such a quiet, dreamlike quality. What little decisions in edges, tones, or space help you create that feeling of calm and nostalgia?
Most of the time I don’t actually plan or sketch out my paintings beforehand, I just go straight onto the canvas with the paint and see where my hand takes me. I rarely paint rocky or bare mountains, it’s the softness and reflectiveness of the snow that often creates the unique shadows and variety of light tones that give each piece a dreamlike quality. The mountain is nearly always the subject of my pieces, and I think this focus, the quiet majesty they hold and sublime presence evoke a sense of calm and wonder.
Q3. In your note on Light burst, you write about the freedom you feel in mountains versus the accuracy you look for in cities. How do you switch between those two ways of working?
When I paint mountainous landscapes, I can be a lot more free with my brush movements and layout in many ways. Because of the fantastical style of my mountain work, you don’t always have to try and be accurate. When I paint cityscapes, I perception and accuracy are key, in my opinion, for making the scenes look realistic. There are so many more edges and manmade shapes and objects that people are more likely to have seen with their own eyes rather than mountains, so I want to make sure people can look at my work and recognise and resonate with the city scene straight away. It’s painting with freedom vs painting with accuracy, both of which I enjoy (depending on my mood!).
Q4. What are the parts of your process that people don’t usually see, the uncertainties, the changes mid-way, the mistakes that shifted the painting in a surprising direction?
I’m usually pretty open with my followers and often show them cut down stages throughout the whole process of creating the piece, I mostly cut out bits that are too long to include, or too messy! Sometimes I will paint over an area I don’t like or feel like isn’t harmonious with the rest of the piece, but with the amount of practice I’ve had painting in this style that doesn’t happen very often anymore. I usually have a rough vision of the piece when painting, and I look forward to seeing if it comes out the way I imagined or slightly different. The main thing people don’t see is how messy I am, and how dirty my palette gets!
Q5. You describe yourself as “an acrylic painter and fine-line blackwork artist” near Dartmoor in Devon. How do the moors, skies, and shifting light around you inspire the colours and moods you choose?
I get asked this quite often, and in all honesty the moorland isn’t quite as inspiring artistically as I’d like. It’s quite barren, marshy and rocky near where I live, which you would think sounds somewhat ideal for a landscape artist – but the colours and light aren’t nearly as dramatic or as wondrous as you see in the mountains. The sunsets can be beautiful though, and they’ve inspired previous works before I became primarily a mountain artist.
Q6. Among all your pieces, is there one that you feel most clearly captures what “Elleve Art” is your voice & how you see the world? Why does that one stands out to you?
Good question – and tough to answer! I have some personal favourites that I believe capture Elleve Art and my voice. Some of those are: Alpenglow, Light Spill, Sun Beam, Evermist, Nightshade and Sun Dance. They all have quite dramatic sources of light, and nearly always a moon. I think pieces that include a moon are very distinctive to my style, and I’ve always felt spiritually and emotionally drawn to the moon, which is why I often want to include it as the mountain’s companion. It also adds that dreamlike quality to my work, which I want myself and viewers to feel when looking at my work.
Q7. What advice would you give to artists still finding their voice and learning to balance creativity, precision, and the business side of art?
Art should be an extension of you. It should be something you feel for when creating, something that you enjoy. Which can be hard when turning into a business, because when you begin creating for work over hobby, it can make that enjoyment fade. My advice would be to keep creating what speaks to you, and then you will find your people who feel the same way about you work and want to buy it. When I started my Instagram, it was simply as a portfolio, and I didn’t expect it to grow into what it has.
As we wrap up our conversation with Ellie Eveleigh, we’re truly moved by the calm, wonder, and imagination she brings to her art. From the quiet beauty of mountains to the soft glow of moonlight, her paintings invite us to slow down, breathe, and see the beauty we often miss in everyday life.
Ellie’s work reflects a balance between freedom and skill where every brushstroke carries emotion, light, and a sense of peace. Her art feels personal yet universal, reminding us how creativity can touch hearts and connect people in the simplest, most genuine ways. Through her gentle, luminous landscapes, Ellie doesn’t just paint scenes she creates moments of stillness and reflection. Her work continues to inspire us to dream, to feel, and to rediscover the magic that exists all around us.
Follow Ellie Eveleigh’s journey and step into her peaceful, magical landscapes where every painting tells a story, and every detail invites you to feel, dream, and connect with art in your own way.
