About the Artist
Elizabeth Cheek is a Brighton-based artist originally from Cambridgeshire, UK. With a background in photography, she graduated with a BA in Contemporary Lens Media in 2012. Her creative practice has taken many forms over the years, from photography to decorative and mixed media resin art, before returning to painting and developing the abstract-realist style that defines her work today. She went on to complete the Milan Art Institute’s Art Mastery Program in 2026, where she further developed her practice in mixed media and oils.
Inspired by animals, nature and wild places, Elizabeth creates layered paintings that sit between realism and abstraction. Memories of travel and encounters with the natural world often become starting points, which she combines with imagination to create something more atmospheric and dreamlike. Luminous glazes, expressive brushwork, rays of light and touches of metallic gold bring movement and depth to the surface, creating paintings that seem to shift with the light around them.
Elizabeth now works from her home studio, where living close to the sea has brought an increasing ocean influence into her practice. Her work has been featured in Art to Hearts Magazine and exhibited locally, and she is currently developing new collections inspired by nature, with plans to continue exhibiting and growing her practice in the UK and beyond. As her work evolves, she continues to create paintings that invite viewers into a world of wonder and possibility, where the familiar becomes something more atmospheric and imagined, somewhere between the world as it is and the way it feels.
Artist Statement
Art is my way of exploring the world within and around me. I’m drawn to creating atmosphere in my paintings, not simply capturing a subject or place, but the feeling of being immersed within it. I want to evoke a sense of wonder, freedom and possibility.
Some of the moments I’ve felt most alive have come from travelling, exploring, being in the ocean, encountering wildlife, standing beneath huge skies and discovering unfamiliar landscapes. These experiences continue to shape the worlds I create. Animals often become my subjects because I find them fascinating, and they’re such a huge part of what makes the natural world feel extraordinary to me. I’m also interested in the qualities they embody, and how they can become a way of exploring ideas and emotions within my work.
I work in layers of mixed media and oils, balancing freedom and expression with focus and refinement, while leaving room for unexpected marks, textures and discoveries along the way. Through my paintings, I hope to share a way of seeing the world with wonder, inviting viewers to look beyond the familiar and allowing reality to become a little more magical.
