ELLIE SARGANT

Ellie Sargant is a 24-year-old abstract oil painter based between Brighton and Crawley. She recently graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton.

Her paintings begin in spaces where nothing makes sense. Creation isn’t about answers, but about sitting with the unknown. It’s like waking up with a tightness in your chest, the air sharp, and the world feeling too close and too far at once. Paint becomes a way of holding what can’t be explained — the fleeting stuff, the things that escape before they settle.

Her work is shaped by the things that linger: the squelch of sliders in puddles, gravel biting through thin soles, the stretched sleeves of a worn hoodie. It’s messy and unpredictable. Paint drips where it shouldn’t, covers what felt important, pulls away from where you thought you had control. Do you erase it, or let it be?

In 2025, Ellie was nominated for the Freelands Painting Prize and longlisted for the Jackson’s Art Prize. She’s now focusing on pushing her practice further, outside of the university setting, and continuing to explore what it means to make something honest.”