About Erica

Erica Mallery-Blythe is a chameleon amongst artists.  As she has moved through different environments, each has inspired her with a new collection of work. The rich diversity of her surroundings reaches out to us through colour vibrant acrylics, earthy sumptuous oil, soft shimmering pastels... and of course her unusual, exotic photographs.

Erica was born in South Eastern England in 1975, but grew up along the fjords of costal Norway.  By heritage she is part English, part Italian and part Native American (although her strawberry blonde hair and green eyes are a sea - sireny disguise for these tribal beginnings).  She returned to England for schooling at the age of ten years and completed her Medical Degree there.  "Painting and sketching were a welcome rescue from the intensity of medical textbooks", Erica muses, "I knew there was a good reason for all that anatomy, it has been wonderfully helpful for pastel drawings of the human form'. Erica worked as a physician for ten years, completing multidisciplinary training in numerous specialties including anaesthetics, general surgery, paediatrics and neonatal intensive care; her area of specialist training was emergency medicine and she taught doctors in the UK and internationally how to train for, and instruct on Advanced Trauma Life Support courses at the highest level.  Her work as a medical doctor has taken her throughout northern and southern England, Scotland and the highlands, tropical regions of Australia and areas of need in the third world. Though the long hours and at times very emotionally stressful conditions,  Erica recalls ' art has always been a greatly therapeutic in my life.. words are too often inadequate, or misunderstood... there is good reason for the saying 'a picture paints a thousand words', and thus painting has helped me express emotion when words were futile".

Erica is entirely self taught and did not study art at school, "I sketched in my spare time, mostly portraits, but there was no time in my curriculum for art classes".  Her natural forte was a fine art style of real and surreal oil painting, as seen in the 'living oil' collection. Over the years, however, Erica has diversified to bring in multimedia techniques to achieve the different styles for which she has become known.

Erica has a somewhat unusual gift which can be visualised in some of her works. She can write backwards as fluently as she can forwards, and has used this ability, referred to as 'mirror writing' to conceal messages, or pieces of prose or poetry within some of the paintings. This unusual phenomenon is shared by the legendary Italian renaissance polymath Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci is widely considered to be "one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived". According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman".  Bilateral language centres and callosal interconnection has been noted in those with the rare ability to mirror write, and this may in part explain the diversity of interests spanning a wide range of both arts and sciences displayed by both Da Vinci and Erica.

Whilst in Scotland, Erica was invited to paint with famous colourist Hugh Murdoch.  His influence can be seen greatly in her 'FireWater' collection.  Erica states "Hugh released me... his fearless use of colour has inspired me more than any other artist....through him my artwork has become more honest and expressive, he is the only person I have ever painted with.'

Erica is passionate about the water and has spent as much time underneath it as she could.  She has PADI qualifications in underwater photography and wreck diving as specialist areas... some of this influence can be seen in her 'Out Of the Orange' Collection and underwater photography.

Erica is currently enjoying some time away from the busy hospital environment and concentrating on her artwork.  She has been living in some of the most beautiful areas of the world, most recently exploring her Native roots in the Sonoran Desert and now in contrast, the swamps and beaches of the south eastern states. 

Erica explains the path ahead of her.  "'Life balance' is of the utmost importance.  In the past I have been a very fortunate person, There was nothing I ever wanted for, life always seemed to land in my lap. I love emergency medicine, it’s certainly a very rewarding job. A series of extremely bizarre events have been bestowed, however, and certainly altered my course.  I am ashamed to admit that perhaps in the past I have been somewhat short sighted in life, but over time I have seen things that I never considered were possible and I am forced to open my life to them.  Art is more important to me now than it has ever been before.  Whatever my emotional state, I can release it to a blank space, leaving my head clear and calm.  Through my recent work I am expressing new thoughts and processes.  I have never felt so inspired. I am currently investigating both very old, and very new areas of medicine, the human body is an amazing creation. I reflect on many of my patients whose only real medical problem was neglect.  Neglect for themselves or from those around them.. and for the simple but important things in life... good food, good sleep... watching the sun come up and go down from a safe place.   It is all too easy to get carried away on the hypnotic flow of western, modern life, and ignore the needs of the most precious possession that we have... the only possession that we really have."

Erica’s work constantly reflects her journey both through different countries and experiences in life.  Her creativity is both flexible and un-boundaried.   She is rapidly building a name for herself in the art world internationally and her work is being recognised and collected.