Painter. Born UK (1975). Lives and works in Oxfordshire.
Eleanor Wong paints animals caught in the middle of being looked at, somewhere between play and holding their ground, between a world we share and one they keep for themselves. She works across oil, acrylic and mixed media, starting from observation and a narrative, then deliberately letting it go, following the painting until it finds its own balance between what she wants the animal to be, and what the animal keeps that's simply its own.
She trained as an Illustrator (BA Hons, Manchester, 1998), and spent a decade working for clients including The Guardian, The Telegraph, the BBC and Waitrose Food Illustrated, work that meant making an image easy, legible, ready for someone else to consume. Painting has run alongside that since 2008, and became her main practice from there. It turned the same instinct inward: instead of taming an image for someone else, staying with the moment just before an animal is fully caught, named, or understood.
Her work has been selected for the Yardley Arts Summer Open 2026, juried by David Mach RA and Anthony Spira, Director of MK Gallery, and the Joy Open at East Quay, juried by Matt Burrows (Exeter Phoenix), Rocca Holly-Nambi (b-Side) and Morag Myerscough. She has also exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society Open, Bankside Gallery, London, was pre-selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and was shortlisted and longlisted for the Visual Art Open, UK and International Emerging Artist Awards.
Exhibitions
2026: Joy Open, East Quay, Watchet, juried by Matt Burrows (Exeter Phoenix), Rocca Holly-Nambi (b-Side) and Morag Myerscough
2026: Yardley Arts Summer Open, Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire, juried by David Mach RA and Anthony Spira, Director of MK Gallery
2026: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2023: RWS Royal Watercolour Society Open, Bankside Gallery, London
2022: Longlisted for Visual Art Open, UK & International Emerging Artist Awards
2022: Burford Art Gallery, Oxfordshire
2021: Shortlisted for 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: Oxford Art Society Open, Cloister Gallery, Oxford
2018: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
2017: Oxfordshire Artweeks Open Studios
Illustration
Clients have included The Guardian, The Telegraph, the BBC and Waitrose Food Illustrated, culminating in a period represented by Folio Illustration Agency.
2006: Images 30, AOI The Best of British Contemporary Illustration, The Old Truman Brewery, London
Education
1998: BA (Hons) Illustration (with Animation), Manchester
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso
"You are old when you have lost the child within you. The key to growing old is staying young." - my Dad, 1936–2022
Eleanor, circa 1982