"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Pablo Picasso - Eleanor circa 1982
“You are old when you have lost the child within you, the key to growing old is staying young,” my Dad, 1936 - 2022
Painter. Born UK (1975). Lives and works in Oxfordshire.
Eleanor Wong paints animals. She has always loved them, and through them she explores feelings like freedom, wildness, and the particular happiness of being outside and unhurried. For her, animals are bridges. Freer from the judgments we can place on humans, they offer emotion and character in their purest form, a shared language that connects us all.
She originally trained as an Illustrator and spent a decade working in London, ending with a period represented by Folio Illustration Agency before returning to Fine Art in 2008. She sets up small dioramas, collects objects, draws from life, letting things find their own direction before she moves to canvas, board or paper. She works in oil, acrylic, and mixed media, building up layers until the painting tells her it's done. Loose and layered, sitting somewhere between abstract and figurative.
Her work has been shown at the Royal Watercolour Society Open at Bankside Gallery, London, pre-selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and shortlisted for the Visual Art Open UK and International Emerging Artist Awards.
Artist Statement
I have always loved animals and have enjoyed the company of many throughout my life. For me there is something special about a connection with an animal: seeing an animal in the wild, that moment of eye contact, a shared bond. It feels lucky, privileged. In those moments I feel we are the same, equal souls. That shared feeling we have being in the world is what I am trying to paint.
I work through play because it is a releasing way to engage with my process. Collecting objects, setting up small dioramas, drawing from life and letting things unfold. It connects to something instinctive, the way children meet the world, unfiltered and curious. My painting works the same way, each layer a small discovery, the finished work somewhere I couldn't have planned.
A painting is finished when everything comes together with the emotion it's giving me. My work sits somewhere between figurative and abstract, semi-abstract enough to breathe but figurative enough to see. There is always room to find your own feeling in it. That is the connection I am after.
Eleanor Wong, 2026
Exhibitions
2026: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2023: RWS Royal Watercolour Society Open, Bankside Gallery, London
2022: Burford Art Gallery, Oxfordshire
2021: Shortlisted for VAO Visual Art Open, UK & International Emerging Artist Awards
2021: Oxford Arts Collective, Oxfordshire
2021: Burford Art Gallery, Oxfordshire
2021: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2020: Burford Art Gallery, Oxfordshire
2020: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2019: Pre-selected for RI Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours
2019: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2019: Fitch & Fellow Gallery, Thame, Oxfordshire
2019: Cloister Gallery, Oxford
2018: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2018: GAP Festival, Goring & Streatley, Oxfordshire
2018: Cornforth Studios, Newbury, Oxfordshire
2017: Freeborn Gallery, Oxfordshire
2017: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2017: The Jam Factory, Oxford
Published Commissions
2007: BBC Radio Times
2006: Vanilla Magazine Ltd.
2005: Orangina bottle artwork, 23 Red Advertising Agency
2005: Radio Times, BBC Worldwide Publishing
2005: You Magazine, The Mail on Sunday
2005: Community Care Magazine, William Reed Publishing Ltd.
2005: Euro RSCG Riley Ltd.
2005: Restaurant Magazine, The Restaurant Game Plc.
2005: The Telegraph, Telegraph Group Ltd.
2005: Waitrose Food Illustrated, John Brown Citrus Publishing
2005: The Guardian Guide, Guardian Newspapers Ltd.
2005: The Guardian Guide, Guardian Newspapers Ltd.
2004: West London Mental Health NHS
2003: City Reach Health Services, Norwich NHS
2000: Unilever Brothers Ltd.
Illustration Exhibitions
2006: Images 30: Group exhibition, AOI The Best of British Contemporary Illustration, The Old Truman Brewery, London
2005: Artists & Illustrators Exhibition, Business Design Centre, Islington, London
2004: Pop-up solo exhibition, Kingly Court, Soho, London
2000: New Designers Exhibition, Business Design Centre, Islington, London
Education
1998: BA (Hons) Illustration (with Animation), Manchester