CV

1963

• Born 2 July in Kiel, Germany

1984

• Matriculation, Harnburg, Germany, Major in Fine Arts.
• Kunststudienstaette Ottersberg, College of Fine Arts and Art Therapy, near Bremen, Germany. During a visiting tutorial Hele was singled out by the director of the college as an example of naturally expressive talent.
• Hele starts to write poetry, works on a novel and has periodic readings to literary groups.

1985

• Academy of Fine Arts, HfBK, Lerchenfeld, Hamburg, Germany.

1986

• Hele's first solo exhibition at Dante, Hamburg, titled "Intake" was well received by public and peers alike.
• She moves to Bremen at the end of the year, joins communal art group "Hochwasser", Bremen. Television coverage is highlight of group show, titled "Ecstasy".

1987

• College of Fine Arts and Art Therapy, Kunststudienstaette Ottersberg, Germany.
• Works for ACE, Bremen, Germany, teaching, (drawing and watercolour), does in house wall murals.
• During summer "Hochwasser" sets up art project at the tidal shore of North-West Germany.
  Tidal inspired paintings and tidal interactive sculptures; open house atmosphere with public invited.

1988

• Involved in the formation of an Artist group "Asha" in order to receive scholarship from Netherland. The move was successful.
• Hele travels to Israel and Egypt to teach. The colours in her paintings change from primary and secondary to more earthy tones, reflecting the influences of her surrounding environment. She begins to focus on specific themes

1989

• "Asha's" initial exhibition at Marianne Schwenen Gallery, Syke, Germany, lead to multiple subsequent shows.

1990

• Travelling around NZ and onto Australia, Hele experiences "the big open", learning about the importance of reducing form and colour. By pursuing participation visits at local TAFE facilities, Hele interacts with rural Australian hands on. Returning to Germany after a twelve month trip abroad, her art continued to evolve in new directions.

1991

• Hele begins integrating the spiritual influences received while travelling India, to her work consciously. While short notice invitation from Boa, India, was received to participate in a group exhibition. An ecstatic response from the local Indian population confirmed the indigenous elements infused to be apparent
• Hele's work finds primary representation in Marianne Schwenen Gallery, Syke, Germany.

1992

• Diploma in Fine Arts, Art Therapy and Art Pedagogy, Kunststudienstaette Ottersberg, Germany, with honours.
• Following Hele's presentation speech during graduation critique sessions, for final years works, Professor Spoerri remarked: "This is the first Artist leaving this school in the last twenty years."
• After leaving Hele works as an Art Therapist in Whales, England, focussing her work on the variations of the colour green.
• Moves back to Hamburg.

1993

• Travelling to Jamaica and North America inspired extensive works on paper dominated by the imbalance of crude surroundings versus hi-tech elements. This Dramatic contrast were inspirational to Hele while structuring a composition.

1994

• Group show in Ulm, South Germany, incorporated published literary works creating a multidimensional image available to the public. Hele studies a diverse range of alternative techniques to archive various surface conditions with paper and on canvas, such the use of concrete, vegetable matter, etc.

1995

• Hele moves early in the year to Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, to work as an Art Therapist for the season. She left for Australia with her two sons after a brief return to Hamburg. To help finance her move down under large bodies of works where sold in a minimum of time.

1996

• Hele chooses to live in Northern NSW, where she has her first solo exhibition in Australia, at the Artisans, Byron Bay, titled "Duality". Interviewed live on Bay FM about her process, she says: "The work receives colour from stroke to stroke, the painting in its present state is asking for a certain move of mine. By responding a work is created, virtually without effort".

1997

• An invitation by Baywood, Byron Bay, for a solo exhibition tittered "Full Space" meets excellent response with over half the 80 works shown, sold.
• Hele's poetry and artwork is published in four consecutive years of the "Women Artist's Diary".

1998

• Hele wins 1st price Byron Easter Art Classic and 1st price Bangalow Art and Craft Show, both in painting. Her Art is met receptively by both rural and metropolitan audiences.
• Hele's extensive education was sought after by the local Steiner School, for the teacher trainee program for Arts and Crafts.

1999

• Hele's artwork is spreading from local venues to capital centres and abroad.
• She wins 3rd price Byron Easter Art Classic and 1st price Bangalow Art and Craft Show, both in painting.
• James Newton, prominent art critic (Artist International), from the area, Bangalow, now residing in Brisbane comments: "Hele Ellis' paintings are refused to be ignored, radiating both, power and energy... her work is enthralling, her use of colour lyrical Distinctive work with raw power of execution, awash with colour in the finest traditions of the great German Expressionist movement..."
• By invitation Hele is now a resident Artist at "Dancing Brush Studio", Mullumbimby.

2000

• Hele receives a high commendation for a diptych on canvas at Festival 2000, Brunswick Heads.
• Hele's paintings are available in Sydney.

2001

• Hele Ellis’ paintings are featured in Boise, Idaho, USA. She works predominantly on larger canvases using more and more primary colours and whites. She leaves studio ‘Fire of Byron’ shared with ceramicist and partner Philip Shane, opening ‘Ellis Art’ on the other side of the Arts and Industry estate of Byron Bay, a studio space with exhibition area (gallery).

2002

• Hele signs contract for a solo exhibition in Brisbane with guaranteed turnover and the opening follows in March, by invitation only, at the newly opened ‘Festival Centre’ in downtown Brisbane. In April Hele flies to Sydney for her opening of the second solo show at the ‘Harris Courtin gallery’. She donates later in the year the diptych ‘Julian Rocks a,b’ to the Uncle Project (boys without a father) in town. For her first solo show back home in Eckernfoerde, Germany. As Hele and her family can’t make it to the opening night, the local councillor and her mother Lisa Troschel open the exhibition at the ‘toez’. After having prepared three solo shows for that year she finds herself exhausted and takes studio work slower.

2003

• Hele starts leasing out artwork to the hospitality industry. Instead of mismatching artworks of various artists in restaurants / foyers Hele consults and hangs herself the exhibitions that appear as semi permanent solo shows. She participates in the Wynne prize competition (Australian landscape, Sydney) for the first time. The particular work chosen, ‘Aurora’, a rather large piece, got snatched up the day it got back from the show. Hele donates several small pieces to the local radio station Bay FM, run by volunteers. The aunty program receives later in the year the triptych ‘poppy a-c’ by Hele for their efforts in the community regarding girl- and womanhood. Her solo exhibition in September at ‘Waywood’ called ‘Flags’, Hele’s home gallery just down the road from her studio, starts off with a good crowd and was talked about for a long time: each of the canvases were panelled together, a technique not being extensively exhausted as yet, creating the theme naturally. Upon popular request Hele Ellis teaches watercolour again for the rest of the year, as an introduction to the understanding of colours. She and her family are moving house again, costing precious studio time. ‘Cape Gallery’ signs Hele up to show her work in town exclusively. At a later date she leaves that gallery altogether.

2004

• This year Hele stops showing in a multitude of shows, she stops dealing with a number of galleries, holds retrospection concerning her career, the art market and her work. Hele is called in as one of six artists to show in Melbourne, but she withdraws a great deal from life in public and does not fly to the opening. She sources galleries that actually understand her work and perspective:
  ‘Colour demands a state of completion; stroke by stroke, layer upon layer the colour forms it’s surrounds- inner and outer form materializes. The colour is found at it’s essence, blossoming fully. The motion of colour is true colour experience: the painting is alive, the moment is now. Nothing is preconceived during the work process, nothing is known. Surrendering to what needs to be done forms the event. Naturally this act is to be witnessed over and over again in a finished piece. Releasing the mind as the unknown reveals itself to the now. Painting towards love and light…’

2005

• Hele Ellis is invited several times this year to be the featured artist longer term in some of her outlets. She enjoys to be able to show a series of work without the involvement through preparation for a solo show. Hele is finally represented at ‘Lake Russell Gallery’, Coffs Harbour, after the owners have changed hands and in the tropics at ‘Framed’, Darwin. She signs up with a leasing firm, operating from Adelaide and Victoria, dealing with corporations that are located overseas, mainly in the UK. At the FEHVA art auction with auctioneer Robert Bleakley (ex Sotheby’s), Byron Bay, Hele sells ‘Deuce 2’ above reserve. Justin Shaw’s ‘Lemming Underground’, a new publication for writers and poets, sees ‘Crowded House’ by Hele Ellis on the front cover, launched at the Murwillumbah Regional Art Gallery. Rare works on paper by Hele are available at ‘Waywood’, Byron Bay.

2006

• A body of work of smaller size is of interest for Hele to finish, targeting the overseas market. She adds and changes galleries in all major Australian cities, with emphasis on pr / agents, leasing options and overseas sister galleries. She spends some time in Sydney with her artist friend Phillip Martin, who made his name in Europe in the fifties. Hele meets regularly with a core group birthing her idea of a local art festival annually held, focussing in particular on locally residing artists creating large scale work, ‘Think Big’ is postponed to 2007.

2007

• Hele Ellis works ten to twelve hour days at the ‘Global Gallery’, Sydney, as artist-in- residence, followed by a solo exhibition in February of 58 pieces, 18 of which she finished in the Sydney studio. This is her trial run for her residency in NY, USA, this year.