Victoria Ellis – Deco Revival – WMODA

Victoria Ellis revives the spirit of the Art Deco era in much of her ceramic art. She carves stoneware panels with intricate designs in low relief. Several of her fairyland subjects were showcased in our Fantastique exhibit and her Jazz Age dancers starred in the Carnival & Cabaret show. See Victoria’s work again in the new Art Deco exhibition when we reopen in Hollywood.

Victoria Ellis has been passionate about art and antiques since childhood. Her parents were avid collectors and she developed an interest in the Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. She studied Fine Art Sculpture at Northumbria University in England, where she discovered clay. As she says, clay “offers the perfect medium, its texture and malleability opening up endless possibilities and encouraging the flow of ideas.” Every stage of Victoria’s work is done by hand and each piece is unique. Many hours are spent carving into the flat clay and then glazing the patterns to bejewel the surface of her work. Her labor-intensive precision techniques for creating ceramic plaques can be seen in the video link below.

Victoria’s classical training concentrated on life drawing and the beauty of the human form is an important aspect of her work. The intricate patterns that flow and interweave throughout her designs are derived from nature, historical illustration and architectural conceits. Art Deco sculpture has been a major influence on her designs, particularly Egyptian motifs which became popular after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.

Fairies were also in vogue during the Art Deco era in the wake of the famous Cottingley photographs hoax. Mischievous imps and elves cavorted in a Celtic twilight in Wedgwood’s Fairyland Lustre during the Roaring Twenties. Their antics can be enjoyed once more in Victoria’s fantasy panels on show in our Fantastique exhibition.