Arlette Ess

My custom made Koi wallpaper created for the magnificent @stgilesdorset is featured in @cabanamagazine SS24 ✨ Text and images by @ashleyhicks1970 #dreaminteriors #maximalism #maximalistinteriordesign #koiart #stgileshouse #arletteess

Lazy Leopardesses, my scarf design for @hermes , in khaki colourway. I find this combination of understated hues very elegant 🖤 images by @hermes #hermesscarf #lazyleopardesses #leopard

‘THE TOWER (sleeping dogs)’ We made a curiously dystopian one-shot movie on an abandoned Watchtower in the Thames estuary (no AI :) The story and visuals speak more of an inner world, of a place of disconnectedness, struggle and isolation familiar to most of us. The location acts as a visualised metaphor of a place, a state of alienation. Watch the whole thing (1 minute) to see the otherworldly setting of that crazy place, also the wind almost blew me off my feet (and @felixfriedmannphotography flew the drone in spite of the strong wind warning :) It features the ‘sleeping dogs’ artwork/silk chiffon scarf, with mythological associations of Underworld/Otherworld and transformation. Shot by @felixfriedmannphotography the music is by the talented duo @torn_relics and the clip is edited to perfection by @motor.monk Thank you 🖤💜🖤 #sleepingdogs #oneshotmovie #urbanexplorer #alienation #fashionfilm #dogart #derelict #dystopian

Which ink to use? The joy of experimenting ✨ I used to use indian ink only (for the bats, snakes, koi…), it’s unapologetically bold and radical in its almost instant waterproofness - it’s not really formulated for layered ink painting though. For the pigeons i’m gravitating towards solid pine soot ink, where you first grind the ink stick on a stone with some water… a very meditative start, and it produces these really delicate shades of grey 🩶 Pigeons here they come! #inkpainting #pinesootink #sumiink #pigeonlove #pigeonfeather

ENTOGRAPHICA is now open in Bath, UK 🪲 Featuring insect-inspired art by sixteen artists I re-worked ‘Fly Lace’, including pen and ink drawings on photographs ‘Soft Wilding I & II’ (sarcasm overpowered by beauty…) Go and see it @brlsi , entry is free. 💚 Link in bio BATH ROYAL LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION Queen's Square, Bath BA1 2HN 2 - 25 February 2026 Mon-Sat 10am-4pm | Admission Free With thanks to support from The Goodman Fund, The Royal Entomological Society - @royentsoc and Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution @brlsi @entographica #insectart #loveinsects #contemparyart #arletteess

Arlette Ess Arlette Ess is fascinated by the beliefs and myths we collectively attach to certain animal species. Her work plays with our visceral and emotional experience of life, with our need to seek meaning and a sense of order and understanding through storytelling. Her works are intricately figurative and arranged in large, stylised compositions, creating a layered and subversive kind of beauty. This universe of beasts and things miraculous is playing with our need to find meaning in a mysterious and multifaceted reality. ... ENTOGRAPHICA Insect-inspired Art from The Entographic Collective Bridget BAILEY | Laura BENETTON | Tracey BUSH | Emily CARTER | Tess CHODAN | Louisa CRISPIN | Arlette ESS | Sarah GILLESPIE | Fleur GRENIER | Katy HARRALD | John LAMERTON | Peter SMITHERS | Lucy SYLVESTER | Rhea THIERSTEIN | John WALTERS | KT YUN BATH ROYAL LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION Queen’s Square, Bath BA1 2HN 2 – 25 February 2026 Mon–Sat 10am–4pm | Admission Free @arletteess With thanks to support from The Goodman Fund, The Royal Entomological Society – @royentsoc and Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution @brlsi

So happy to be contributing some artwork to go under the hammer at the the Elmore Court Art Party in aid of the charity Drug Science. Their work advocates for research and legislation to broaden treatment for a wide variety of mental and other health issues, from treatment-resistant depression and PTSD to epilepsy in children. Bidding online is open already, art and tickets for 30. Jan on this link (also in bio) ✨ /ELMORECOURT @wolfewalkerart @elmorecourt 💜

The next edition of Fly Lace is coming soon 🪰🪰🪰 but it’s taking a while 😂 (you can literally see the daylight waning in this edit 🌅) It’s going to be part of the exhibition @entographica in Bath this February 🪲 I think craft is king, especially in the age of AI - everything of substance has skill, dedication, willpower and precious time woven into it, and most importantly, spirit and imagination ✨ If you want to create something fresh and original, you gotta put the work in ♥️ I see AI as a great tool for many mundane and boring tasks, and hopefully also for medical research and new energy sources and technologies, but it’s not replacing true creativity. Let’s not forget that without people’s passion and often life’s work poured into creation - writing, drawing, painting, experimenting - we wouldn’t have the basis for AI creating anything at all. #insectart #penandink #contemporaryart #contemporarycraft

Details of ‘Snakes I’ with dark metallic pigment, 100x100cm, edition of 20. Archival fine art print from original ink painting and digital layering, with hand painted metallic background. The snake is a potent mythological symbol, first and foremost representing the healer and the ancient world creator. Every potent symbol also embodies its opposite. The snake appears particularly ambivalent, a creator and destroyer, protector and deceiver. ‘Snakes I’ embodies these layers of complexity in a dark entanglement of textured bodies, soothing and unsettling, figurative but verging on abstraction. #snakes #snakelover #snakeart

Saturated abundance in a gothic dream, a dinner extravaganza created by @n_lueer_gmunden in their beautiful gallery✨ starring the large Midnight Bats linen tablecloth. A feast for many senses, the manifest piled on top of the painted, the mythical merged with the physical, pearls, lusters, fruit and more fruit, midnight bats feasting with shining eyes ✨ A cornucopia enmeshing fantasy and reality 🥭🦇💎 #bats #midnightmemories #midnightmadness #midnightdreaming #tablescape #gothicstyle #gothicinterior #gothicaesthetic #cornucopia #feast #midnightfeast #darkinteriors #darktable #batsrule #midnightart #shadowart #eclecticwitch #darkaesthetics #batart #arletteess

inky little bat baby 🥰 These fruit bat drawings are shaded with thin layers of Indian ink 🖤 it’s very meditative and requires high levels of focus, because the ink is waterproof and any mistake - too much ink, a spillover onto a lighter area, missing an outline - will be part of the drawing. Maybe it’s that level of ‘risk’ which makes it extra satisfying? Also I wouldn’t be able to layer so well if the ink would dissolve when overpainted. I love ink for its potential to create these very nuanced monochrome shades 🖤🩶🤍 The process of painting with ink is quite different from watercolour, which dissolves and blends upon layering. I love watercolour too - all these vivid colours, the jewelbox feel when you open the paintbox 🌈 but somehow monochrome art has its own mysterious fascination, no? 🖤🤍🩶 This is a painting of African Straw Coloured fruit bats (Eidolon Helvum) #monochrome #monochromeart #babybat #batbaby #africanbat #fruitbat #batsrule #contemporaryart #shading #ink #inkdrawing #inkpainting #wip #workinprogress #batart #batpainting #artinnature #animalsinart #batlover #eidolonhelvum #arletteess