About Ella

Ella Hopkins (b. 2001, Atlanta, GA) has a BA in Interdisciplinary Art and Design from the University of Georgia, and a Minor in Women’s Studies. Her coursework focused on painting and fabric design, while allowing her to experiment with other artforms such as photography, weaving, and bookmaking. Her exit show, titled Vibrant Silence, explored the connections between color and emotion and the idea of “quiet” art. She studied in Cortona, Italy during the summer of 2022.

Ella’s favorite pieces to create offer a glimpse of life - relationships, sacred spaces, and moments of harmony - saturated with vibrant color and vivid light. She often takes photos to capture the fleeting moments she will later honor by painting. 

She works at K.A. Artist Shop in downtown Athens, GA. Through this job, she has developed entrepreneurial skills and expertise in professional art supplies.

Ella has enjoyed creating art all of her life, and an art class in high school inspired her to pursue it further. She started painting furniture and wall murals in the Spring of 2020 to stay busy during the pandemic, and fully recognized her love and talent for art. Once she was able to return to campus, she started taking art classes and decided to make it her career.

She attended a plen aire oil painting workshop with Jill Steinhaus in 2021, where she studied the styles of Van Gogh and Cezanne. While working at K.A. Artist Shop and various restaurants, Ella has created advertisement boards and signs by hand.

Artist Statement

My work celebrates color, light, emotion, and effervescent humanity. I am inspired by people, our little world on this floating rock in space, and all we’ve done with it. I don’t mean fossil fuels, skyscrapers, or capitalism; I mean the relationships and fleeting moments we’re lucky to experience in our limited time together. My favorite paintings to create are about incredibly specific emotions or moments - micro expressions of humanity. Moments when life is so vibrant and raw that nothing else matters or exists.

My most recent body of work, Vibrant Silence, explores two ideas simultaneously. The series is based in color theory and how different hues evoke specific emotions. I’ve always loved exploring the symbolism of color throughout history, and our innate reactions to color. The second theme in Vibrant Silence is quietness. I don’t have the kind of synesthesia where colors or shapes produce music, but I can always hear the work, whether the sound is a loud, raucous party, or a quiet, peaceful forest, or something in between. As I join the “real world”, my brain and thoughts are very loud; full of questions, doubts, advice, hopes, and ideas. I create art that quiets my brain.