Artist statement
I am an artist, writer and therapeutic facilitator. I am currently experimenting with oil paint and cold wax medium to created textured abstract paintings. I am inspired by nature, especially the sea, and therapuetic processes aimed at enhancing our sense of wellbeing. I often include asemic writing (writing with no meaning) and poetry in my work.
Extended Bio
Elaine has been journaling and writing poetry since her teenage years but only began to develop a focused writing practice in the early 2000s whilst at home with her your young family. She combined this with her background in counselling to launch writing for wellbeing workshops with fellow writer, Janis Wemyss in 2010. She has been offering workshops in Aberdeen city and shire to children and adults ever since.
Her collaborations with local artists, Mel Shand and Jane Ronie on two different community projects in 2013 and 2015 respectively, re-awakened her passion for art which had been ‘on hold’ since completing a Higher in Art at secondary school. She began by exploring how to combine the written word with visual elements through such poetic forms as erasure poetry and concrete poetry as well as developing an interest in zendoodle drawing. This fascination for pattern was then further developed through the art of paper-cutting. In 2017 she was writer-in-residence in The Wild Garden at The Barn, Banchory leading their community wellbeing project, Flourish. She offered writing workshops in the gardens to emphasise the combined wellbeing benefit of creativity and spending time in nature. The development of her own art practice was an integral part of this year-long project and she secured VACMA funding to work with Edinburgh artist, Brigid Collins to develop work focused on Artists’ books. This all culminated in an exhibition of community writing and art as well as her own cyanotype photography, artists’ books, visual poetry and writing.
She is currently experimenting with oil paint and cold wax medium creating abstract paintings inspired by the labyrinth, therapeutic processes and nature, particularly her love of being by and swimming in the sea.
Exhibitions
Telling Tides – Feb – Apr 2025
Solo Exhibition - Buchanan Bistro, The Barn, Banchory.
Love Letters From The Labyrinth – Mar – Apr 2024
Solo Exhibition - The Foyer Gallery, The Phoenix Centre, Newton Dee, Aberdeen
Flourish – Mar 2018
Community exhibition incorporating her own solo work - The Barn, Banchory.
The Inverarity Gallery, Alva, Aberdeenshire.
Exhibited as a member of a number of group shows
NEOS exhibitor – 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021 and 2024
