Ellis Owen Ellis

[2] When he was a young man, Ellis was apprenticed to a carpenter but showed some promise as an artist, possibly in the capacity of a sign painter or in a coach building business.

[5] There is little concrete evidence determining Ellis's movements after 1834, but it is likely that he spent some time in Liverpool before moving to his home in Bryncoch near Pwllheli.

Indeed, according to Peter Lord, Ellis’ home was a meeting-place for Welsh intellectuals such as Ceiriog, Llyfrbryf, Idris Fychan and Robin Ddu.

He describes the Life and Times of Richard Robert Jones as 'a Welsh Odyssey'[9] and points out his use of a classical, 'Flaxmanesque, style of outline drawing'.

Such a range of references leads to an unexpected synthesis in Ellis' work between rustic Welsh subject matter and classical erudition, obviously the product of a good arts education despite the artist's humble background.

Ellis also began work on a number of blocks to illustrate a picaresque fiction in pamphlet form about the highway man Dick Turpin published by John Jones.