Elysia Gilman is a British artist based in North Wales, working primarily in oil paint to create expressive portraits and figurative works. Her paintings focus on atmosphere, light and movement, capturing fleeting moments and turning them into something lasting.

At the heart of her practice is portraiture. Elysia creates bespoke commissions for clients around the world, alongside original works inspired by travel, sport, architecture and everyday life. Whether painting a person, a place, or a passing moment, her aim is always the same: to preserve something personal and real.

Born and raised in North Wales, Elysia has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. She grew up surrounded by landscape and natural light, which continues to influence her work today. From an early age, she spent hours sketching and experimenting with paint, encouraged by a natural instinct to create.

By the age of 17, she had already begun receiving recognition for her work, winning first prize in the national MOMA Machynlleth Tabernacle Art Competition and completing commissioned portraits while still studying A Level Art. She went on to begin a Fine Art degree before stepping away during the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, choosing instead to return home and follow her childhood dream of becoming an artist.

That decision marked a turning point. Working from North Wales, she began building her career as a full-time artist, sharing her process online and developing a growing audience for her work. Her painting videos have since reached millions of views online, including one video amassing over 14.8 million views, and she now has over 300,000 followers on TikTok and 100,000 on Instagram. She also continued her studies at The Realist Academy at Walton Hall, where she was taught classical techniques by a graduate of the Florence Academy of Fine Art.

As her practice developed, so did her reputation for portrait commissions. Elysia now works with clients across the world, creating paintings that focus on character, presence and emotion. Her portraits are designed to feel personal rather than posed – capturing the personality of the subject rather than just a photographic likeness.

In recent years, she has become particularly known for her wedding paintings, which preserve the atmosphere and emotion of a couple’s day in a single artwork. These pieces are created as lasting heirlooms, allowing clients to relive meaningful moments through paint.

Alongside her commissioned work, Elysia continues to produce original paintings rooted in observation and lived experiences. Inspired by the Impressionists, she is drawn to capturing light and colour – particularly dappled light and long shadows – and often works in layered oil paint, using expressive brushwork to build depth, texture and movement.

Her work has been featured on BBC News, ITV Wales’ Backstage, and Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Week. She has been recognised by the Portrait Society of America, was chosen by The National Gallery as one of their ‘200 Creators’, and has exhibited on a digital billboard in Times Square, New York. Her paintings have also been shared by institutions including The Savoy, Claridge’s and Cunard.

Today, Elysia continues to work from her studio in North Wales, creating both commissioned and original works for clients and collectors worldwide.