Elysia Gilman

A new generation of artists is building their reputation online, turning attention into audiences and audiences into collectors. Elysia Gilman is one of them: people discover her work through her website and especially social media, where she’s built a following of over 450,000 and her TikTok videos regularly reach millions of views.

Hailing from North Wales, Elysia works primarily in portraiture, figurative painting and scenes drawn from everyday life. Her work has been featured on BBC Breakfast News, ITV Wales and Sky Arts, and one painting has even appeared on a digital billboard in Times Square, New York City.

Her goal is to capture fleeting moments and make them feel timeless, using oils. Today, she balances original paintings with portrait commissions, selling through her online shop. For an artist whose digital presence is so central, it follows that smooth and secure online sales really matter.

Faster checkout with digital wallets

For customers buying on mobile, digital wallets can remove friction and speed up payment. Elysia has seen a clear difference since offering Apple Pay and Google Pay to simplify the shopping experience, giving customers familiar payment methods that they already use and trust. 

“Digital wallets have made such a huge difference as this makes checkout a lot easier and faster for customers,” she says. “It also changes how customers perceive the shop, as I feel it makes my website look that bit more professional. I’m really pleased I can offer Apple Pay and Google Pay now.”

Artwork commissions often come from overseas customers, which can make it awkward to take payments if it means co-ordinating calls across time zones. For Elysia, Pay by Link has changed all that. 

“Setting up Pay by Link has been a game changer for me,” she explains. “It used to be a bit time-consuming, for both customers and for me, when we had to arrange calls around different time zones so I could take the payments. Now, I can request payment quickly and let customers pay when it's convenient for them.

“It’s fast and easy to send customers a Pay by Link, which is a URL that enables them to pay at a time that suits. They can pay either by card or digital wallet,” she adds.

Onboarding and ongoing support

Elysia started her business from scratch and learned as she went, so responsive support was crucial during setup and remains important as it grows.

“The Elavon team have been incredibly helpful and supportive. They always reply to my emails quickly, and they even go the extra mile to phone me periodically to see if there’s anything I need help with or to update me with things I need to know. That matters a lot to me. It’s so reassuring to have a real person to contact.” 

Next up, Elysia is preparing her first print drop: a limited release of selected paintings, available for a short period through her prints page. 

“It feels like a natural next step in making my work more accessible while keeping a sense of rarity and intention around each piece,” she says. Alongside this, she continues to take on portrait commissions, “always excited to receive new commissions and explore new stories through them”.