Watching people is a special urban pleasure and, in today’s world, a strange form of intimacy. Atlanta-raised artist Maggie Ellis finds inspiration in these public gatherings. For the past several years, she has spent her days wandering the streets of her upper Manhattan apartment and her Bronx studio observing the characters and storylines that unfolded around her.

Working from memory, Ellis transmits these idiosyncratic vignettes in energetic, intensely colored canvases, marked by a comical absurdity almost Weimar. Last fall, his second solo exhibition “Strange Strangers” at Charles Moffett’s home featured 13 large-scale paintings that captured the quirks of the start of the pandemic: a couple, blue with cold, sitting with lattes in a coffee shop in outdoors ; a man drinking red wine in a tent on the street; groups of people dining al fresco – who already feel like a bygone era.

Recently, Ellis gave us an overview of her studio and what she is currently working on.

What are the most essential items in your studio and why?

Q-Tips. I constantly use them to touch up small details and erase mistakes. Cloths aren’t very precise, but a Q-Tip will still do the job. The floor of my studio is still littered with them. Another item is the door-sized glass pallet that I found in the trash cans a few years ago. I’ve always wanted a palette big enough to hold several feet of mixed paint. The biggest change has been the natural light from my windows. There is something about the power of daylight that allows me to see a much wider range of colors.

Is there a photo you can send of your work in progress?

What is the studio task on your schedule tomorrow that you are looking forward to the most?

I can’t wait to create new color palettes. I’m leaving a show, so I try to reorient myself in the studio. This allows you to draw a lot and concentrate on preparing new surfaces. I like to sit on the studio floor with my colored pencils surrounded by my drawings and new canvases and think about new color palettes for future paintings.

What atmosphere do you prefer when you work? Do you listen to music or podcasts, or do you prefer silence? Why?

I like a calm atmosphere with my headphones on while I am working. Most of the time, I listen to a curated playlist that I associate with a painting workflow. It depends on the season, my emotional state or the time of day. I have a David Lynch inspired playlist for when I need to get serious and focus. I have a country playlist for sunny summer days. There are several of them. I’ve been working on these playlists for seven years, so at this point there’s a ton of variety for the studio. But if I’m bored preparing canvases or washing brushes and need some encouragement (and scared to wake up), I listen to my favorite scary podcast, scared.

Maggie Ellis, 2021. Photograph by Elizabeth Brooks.

What trait do you admire most in a work of art? Which trait do you despise the most?

The trait I admire the most in a work of art is shamelessness. When I can find moments in a work where I feel like the artist has really let go, it’s something that interests me and that I want to see. Talking about a trait that I despise is difficult to answer. I don’t like having rules about what works and what doesn’t. Art is fluid, so it’s hard for me to determine anything because I’m always surprised by what I thought I didn’t like before. My early art education was very academic, so deep down I have these old preconceived notions about “good” painting, “bad” painting, and I’m still taking that apart for myself.

What snack could your studio not function without?

I don’t snack a lot in the studio. In fact, I find it distracting. If I’m being honest, weed is my snack. This allows me to continue. But if I happen to bring a real snack, it’s probably Skittles or trail mix.

Who are your favorite artists, curators, or other thinkers to follow on social media right now?

I always like to see Celeste Dupuy-Spencerpaintings, work in progress, and occasional Instagram reading recommendations. Stone shearThe review of is awesome – he regularly posts paintings by a lot of artists and most of the time these are paintings I’ve never seen before – like the B sides of all these great painters. i love watching the What is New York also counts. It always cracks me up and I love seeing this huge collection of ridiculous sightings in New York City. I also follow a lot of underwater and diving related Instagrams: Ocean Nation, Girls who dive. I love to dive and although I don’t do it very often, I want to see the underwater world.

Photograph by Elizabeth Brooks.

When you feel stuck in the studio, what do you do to get out of it?

If I’m stuck I’ll either meditate or take a walk. But if I am really stuck, I stay away from the studio. Staring at the paintings for too long can drive me crazy, so I just need to be outside and get away from the problem. Sometimes I have to stay and fight in the painting, but there is a limit to that. Drawing at home is a great way to break the deadlock and remind myself not to take things too seriously. I learned that with painting I cannot force it to exist because, for me, it is something that is felt.

What is the last exhibition that you saw that marked you?

Alice Neel’s first paintings recently exhibited at David Zwirner’s were so raw. There was a portrait of a woman with that thin, dark face, dark circles under her eyes, and a little green hat. The text on the wall was a quote from Neel describing when she saw this woman as she walked with her children in 1943. She painted it from memory and finished it while her children were sleeping. “He has no technique, none of the shibboleths of studied art. It’s just pure expression, ”she wrote. I should also mention the Dawn Clements retrospective at Mana Contemporary in New Jersey. His massive and powerful designs completely blew me away.

If you had to create a moodboard, what would be on it right now?

Film photos of Rear window, 18th century fashion cartoons, Rugrats and street photographs by Vivian Maier. The whole movie About infinity directed by Roy Andersson would fill the rest of my moodboard.

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