https:\/\/www.greatbritishlife.co.uk\/magazines\/cheshire\/<\/a> to subscribe today!\u00a0\n<\/p>\n\n \u2018When I came home during Covid, I just thought, I need to do what I actually want to do,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019d decided I was going to follow my passion; I always knew I wanted to be an artist.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n That decision led to a year of dedicated portrait training at Walton Hall in Warrington, studying under a tutor trained at the Florence Academy of Fine Art. There, she learned the classical foundations \u2013 proportion, structure and discipline \u2013 that now underpin her work.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before the studio, there was the kitchen table. \u2018My mum got fed up with the paint marks everywhere,\u2019 she says with a smile.\n<\/p>\n
\n Portraiture remains her focus, though her interests extend beyond it. \u2018I like figurative work as well, capturing moments,\u2019 she says. \u2018And I do some street scenes.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n The roots of her dedication to doing it her way stretch back to childhood. \u2018I\u2019ve always had that passion,\u2019 she reflects. \u2018I remember sitting with my grandad at the kitchen table and he\u2019d teach me the names of the brushes.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Her grandfather, artist Tony Gilman, painted in acrylics and watercolours. His influence lingers, not only in memory but in the tools she uses. \u2018I used to wake up early and go downstairs to paint,\u2019 she says. \u2018I was always drawing, from different angles, such as a bird\u2019s-eye view of a room.\u2019 That instinct to observe and record has evolved into something more refined, but the core remains unchanged.\n<\/p>\n
\n Social media has played a significant role in Elysia\u2019s career. A video documenting the full process of a portrait commission gained almost 15million views on TikTok (@elysiagilmanart, where she has more than 360k followers), drawing attention far beyond the UK. The subject, a couple reunited in their eighties, struck a chord with audiences.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Elysia]()
A video showing Elysia painting this portrait of a couple reunited later in life, Lin and Harold Rubin, amassed almost 15m views on TikTok (Image: Elysia Gilman)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018I love capturing those kinds of moments,\u2019 she says. \u2018But social media is time consuming. It takes you away from what you\u2019re wanting to do, which is paint. But the more\n<\/p>\n
\n I did it, the more I thought, \u201cWell, it\u2019s a part of how I have to market myself.\u201d It just becomes a part of the process.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n The rewards are tangible. International commissions followed, bringing both opportunity and pressure. \u2018I had them back-to-back at one point, which was amazing, but busy.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite this, Elysia remains grounded in her practice. In a second room, canvases are stacked and stored, some finished, others waiting. On one wall hangs a striking painting of the Savoy Hotel in London, its fa\u00e7ade rendered with precision and atmosphere. It feels distinct from her portraiture, yet equally assured.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018That was part of a series,\u2019 she explains. \u2018I watched a documentary about it and thought, I\u2019ll paint a few scenes \u2013 and they did really well.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n The hotel itself shared the work on social media, a moment of recognition that sits among her growing achievements.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Elysia]()
Elysia at work on her latest commission (Image: Tracy Tate)\n<\/p>\n
\n At just 25, Elysia\u2019s career already carries notable highlights. She appeared twice on Sky Art\u2019s lockdown series, Sky Portrait Artist of the Week; first in 2020, winning one round with her portrait of Rob Rinder, and later, in 2023, returning for a live world-record painting event.\n<\/p>\n
\n More recently, she has collaborated with British art supplier ProArte to develop a collection of oil brushes under her name. It is a hands-on partnership, focussed on quality and usability, with a set expected to retail at around \u00a350. It signals a natural extension of her practice into retail, grounded in the tools she uses every day.\n<\/p>\n
\n Back in the studio, the portrait on the easel continues to take shape. There is no rush, no sense of spectacle, just the steady accumulation of detail, brushstroke by brushstroke.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Elysia]()
A recent wedding commission, featuring the new Mr & Mrs Franklin, Paul and Lucie\u00a0 (Image: Elysia Gilman)\n<\/p>\n
\n Elysia Gilman\u2019s work is rooted in observation, but it is driven by something more personal \u2013 a desire to preserve fleeting moments and translate them into something lasting. It is, perhaps, a continuation of those early mornings at the kitchen table, guided by her grandfather.\n<\/p>\n
\n She still has his brushes and I cannot imagine he\u2019d be anything but very proud..\n<\/p>\n
\n elysiagilman.com @elysiagilmanart\n<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Elysia]()
Reflections at the Savoy, part of a series inspired by a television documentary about the famous hotel (Image: Elysia Gilman)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have long admired her work, so when she invited me to meet her at her studio in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}