Photo Essay: Through the eyes of Ella Saulnier’s artistic mind

By Nyah Fernandez, Multimedia Editor
March 28, 2021

  • In this picture, Saulnier was explores color combinations and contrast.

    Photo credit: Ella Saulnier
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  • For this drawing, Saulnier said she attempted to capture what it feels like to be lost or confused.

    Photo credit: Ella Saulnier
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  • “In art class, the prompt was ‘how are you feeling?’ I drew this because I have multiple different identities, and sometimes I feel like they are all stretching apart trying to go down separate roads, and I wanted to capture that feeling in a visual image because sometimes words don’t work,” Saulnier said.

    Photo credit: Ella Saulnier
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  • In this piece, Saulnier said she based it off the movie “The Shining” to try and capture a similar feeling.

    Photo credit: Ella Saulnier
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  • “In this art piece it was drawn with colored pencil, and is a shading practice that turned out well,” Saulnier said.

    Photo credit: Ella Saulnier
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Ella Saulnier (’26) was 2 years old when she started drawing and has had a passion for art ever since. Saulnier credits much of her artistic inspiration to her father, who drew doodles of dragons with her at a young age, as well as watching cinematic movies. In addition to continuing her art, Saulnier said she hopes to direct movies one day as movies inspire her and bring her joy, and she uses those feelings to make her own artwork more captivating

“My favorite movies are really cinematic, and I love how they are nicely laid out,” Saulnier said. “I like the aesthetic that it captures so I tried doing that in my paintings.”

Saulnier expressed how the “one thing” she likes about being an artist is to see people’s reactions to her drawing. She said she loves seeing their happiness as she shows them her work, and she likes hearing how a certain drawing makes them feel.

This is a painting that is meant to portray being “drowned out.” (Photo credit: Ella Saulnier)

“I mean, I love drawing. I love drawing people and then showing them the drawing and seeing their reaction,”  Saulnier said. “The reason why I love drawing is to see people’s reaction because it makes me feel good that they like my work.”

Saulnier said she feels that art is a nice hobby to do in her free time, to grab a piece of paper and draw. If she runs out of ideas and does not have inspiration at the moment, she finds creative outlets she can observe.

“I think it’s really relaxing, honestly, to just draw so I like it,” Saulnier said. “I look for anything —  like, even if it’s on Pinterest for ideas and stuff like that —  to just draw and have fun.”

During quarantine, Saulnier feels her art has improved a lot. Since online school is still in progress during the week, she said she has more time to draw and open up her mind to new drawings and ideas.

“I’ve grown a lot as an artist, and I feel I have a lot more free time with online school because I don’t have to get up early. I can just get up at 8:29 a.m. and then log on to my classes,” Saulnier said. “I have a lot more time to experiment with my art style and build onto it.”

When Saulnier feels an emotion, she paints drawings that reflects her eye and feels that drawing has no limit; people can start off with a piece of paper and pencil and see where their mind takes them to.

“When I am sad, I try I try to create a forest or fantasy forest,” Saulnier said.” Drawing is also cool because you start off with a white piece of paper and you can do whatever with it — you can change to a universal language, in a way, because there are no rules.”