E.C. KNIGHTINGALE
Artist. Boat Builder. Storyteller.
Rural Mythology
Rural Mythology grows out of the Urban Cattle series, expanding from animal portraiture into the larger visual world of the farm itself.
The tractors are real toys. The farmers are 3D printed and hand-painted in farm clothing. The barn was built to scale, complete with working details. These subjects are not imagined from nothing. They begin as physical objects, built, found, staged, photographed, and transformed.
Rendered through collage, plaster, acrylic, epoxy, and distressed surfaces, the works appear both familiar and estranged. The tractor becomes toy, machine, and symbol of hidden labour. The barn becomes less a fixed structure than a remembered image: part storybook, part rural icon, part pastoral fantasy.
Together, these works ask how urban viewers come to know the farm. Not through daily experience, but through memory, play, distance, and imagination.
This is an ongoing series.
Rural Mythology Series: Red International
Mixed media on plywood, 48" x 48"
Paper, plaster, acrylic, epoxy, and final UV marine finish. Includes photographed model.
Model subject:
A vintage die-cast International tractor carries a 3D printed farmer, designed, painted, and placed by Ellis.
This piece began as a small rural object and was rebuilt through scale, surface, and imagination. The farmer was designed digitally, printed in three dimensions, and hand-painted to sit naturally on the vintage tractor. The surface is built through 10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, epoxy, and a marine-grade UV finish, giving the work both physical depth and lasting durability.
Rural Mythology Series: Orange Grove
Mixed media on plywood, 48" x 48"
10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, epoxy, and final UV marine finish. Includes photographed model.
Model subject:
A vintage pressed tin tractor, complete with farmer, staged in front of an imagined orange grove.
The piece began with a rustic farm toy, worn and familiar, then was reimagined within a grove that feels lush, layered, and almost dreamlike. The surface is built through 10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, and epoxy, creating depth, texture, and atmosphere before being sealed with a final UV marine finish.
Rural Mythology Series: Lavender Field
Mixed media on plywood, 48" x 48"
10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, epoxy, and final UV marine finish. Includes photographed model.
Model subject:
A 3D printed farmer, designed and hand-painted by Ellis, seated on a toy tractor and set against a lavender field in the south of France.
For this piece, Ellis designed the farmer digitally, produced the figure through 3D printing, and painted it by hand in farm clothing to suit the scale and character of the tractor. The model was then staged against an imagined lavender field, turning a small rural machine into a scene of colour, distance, and quiet work.
The finished panel is built through 10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, and epoxy, then sealed with a UV marine finish drawn from Ellis’s boat building practice.
Rural Mythology Series: Red Barn
Mixed media on plywood, 48" x 48"
10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, epoxy, and final UV marine finish. Includes photographed model.
Model subject:
A scale wood barn built by Ellis, then painted and finished by hand with hinged doors and windows.
This piece is built around a handmade scale barn, constructed in wood and finished by Ellis with working details, including hinged doors and windows. The barn was then staged and photographed as part of the final composition.
The panel itself is built through 10 to 15 layers of paper, plaster, acrylic, and epoxy, creating a surface with depth, texture, and physical presence. A final UV marine finish protects the piece and connects the work directly to Ellis’s long practice as a wooden boat builder.
The barn sits as both structure and memory.
Rural Mythology Series: International Chalkboard
Mixed media on plywood, 48" x 48"
Paper, plaster, acrylic, white epoxy, chalkboard paint, and final sanded UV marine finish.
Model subject:
This piece connects Ellis’s art practice directly to his boat building background.
The tractor image was carved by hand into the panel. White epoxy was then pressed into the carved lines, using a process similar to the white epoxy seams found on the decks of the mahogany boats Ellis has built. The surface was finished with three coats of chalkboard paint, then sanded and sealed with a UV marine finish.
The result is both artwork and working surface.
It can function as a chalkboard, but it also carries the marks of carving, filling, sanding, finishing, and handwork. The piece turns a familiar tractor form into something graphic, practical, and deeply tied to craft.
