Gillian started showing her work with us at the end of last month, we all love her work here at the gallery & we are very excited to introduce her... Here is a little more about her & her work....
About me
Originally from the East of Scotland, I now live in the beautiful, rugged and inspirational area of Northumberland.
Originally completing a degree in Performance Costume from Edinburgh College of Art I graduated in 2005 and I have for the past few years been focussed on drawing and painting which combines my love of history, community, people and their connection with the land and sea.
My time is spent either in my studio or exploring the local area with sketchbook, pencils and a flask of coffee in hand. Immersing myself in the inspirational harbour villages, castles and landscapes I am never short on inspiration to take back to the studio to work from.
Exploring the lost and found, the past and how it has shaped us, connection and heritage – these are themes in my work. I seek to create a certain atmosphere and emotion. All at once imagined and familiar, a connection with the viewer and a continued exploration to find my own place in the world
Artists statement
Growing up on the East Coast of Scotland, with a keen interest in history, storytelling and my own family heritage I create drawings and paintings to explore connections with the people who have come before me and the land that inspires me. The places in my paintings are sometimes reminiscent of things I have seen but are also sometimes an abstracted essence of areas that inspire and are also partly imagined.
Layers of muted colours and textured paint are built up in the same way that memories are accumulated over our lifetime and from the generations before. A history, half remembered, stories told and adapted over time. I often feel that rather than painting or drawing on a surface, I am excavating an image, a person or a place, revealing something that has been there for a long, long time. My process is one of applying layers and scraping or erasing away, leaving remnants that are built up and removed over and over until the final image comes together.
My work, I feel is all about connection. Our connection to something we recognise in a landscape that resembles somewhere we have seen or been to before. This also represents the connection between the people, the communities and their impact and relationship to the landscape in which they reside. I love the details that we see in a landscape. A time when houses and villages are rooted in and belong to the surrounding hills and coastline. Built in such a way that they appear to have always been there.
They have a sense of history, perhaps a melancholic way of reminding us of what has long since passed, what we have lost in many ways.
For more details on Gillian's work or any other work in the gallery please contact us on 01325 363635
(Gillian's work is available on our 0% 'Own Art' scheme)
