A practice born from silence and matter
Art by Elle is the creative project of Elle Duval, a France-based abstract artist known for her intuitive, emotion-driven approach to painting, built through the patient layering of successive coats. Her work unfolds gently, shaped by dreams, feelings and the changing rhythms of life.
Working with acrylic and natural pigments, she weaves softness and authenticity across layers that evolve slowly, guided by her intuition and a deep emotional pulse.
Themes of connection and transformation surface quietly in her practice, opening a window onto an invisible inner world and the tenderness inherent in every shift. Her approach belongs to the Slow Art movement, where a painting is allowed to breathe, to unfold and to weave lasting bonds with the viewer.
A body of work rooted in connection and transformation
On her official portfolio, the artist sums up her signature in three words, « abstract. layered. felt. ». A layered, deeply felt painting, where each canvas is built one coat at a time until a world that had no prior existence rises into view.
The titles Elle Duval gives her pieces trace an intimate cartography. Bloom of Whispers, Whisper of Stillness, Where Roots Flow, Ascend Beyond, The Unfolding Beneath. Each name carries a quiet movement, a passage, an awakening. Behind them stands an artist who favours the evocation of feeling and lets the eye settle into long contemplation.
Acrylic and time as medium
Elle Duval favours human-scale formats, designed for an intimate gaze rather than for the impact of a monumental room. The work Stillfall, shared on her Instagram account in April 2026, measures 57.5 × 77.7 centimetres and embodies that choice.
In Slow Art, time itself becomes a material. Each layer waits for the next, each correction enriches the gesture. It is a painting that settles into the long run and asks to be viewed with the same patience.
A voice that travels beyond borders
Elle Duval's work reaches well beyond the French-speaking audience. The artist speaks in English to an international community of collectors and contemporary art enthusiasts.
In August 2025, she presented the Fragments of Aura series at Pixel Aura Gallery, while Global Art Times magazine devoted an article to her work in the same month's edition. A video production by Ciel Studio Events, Slow Stories in Motion, captures her meditative relationship to gesture and colour.
Today, our BARNES Annecy office is hosting Art by Elle Solo Exhibition, Selected Works. Among the pieces on display are Ignite Within, Weathering I / II, Stillfall, Ascend Beyond, Midnight Drift, Flowing Fields and Beneath the Petal Sky.
You can admire these works, available for acquisition on request, and meet our team during the agency's opening hours.
To explore the artist's full universe, her studio and her recent works:
- Official portfolio, brush.bio/studioartbyelle
- Instagram, @artbyelle___
- Official links and press, bio.site/studioartbyelle
