About the Artist

Artist Statement

Ginny’s painting practice is grounded in sustained observation and painterly play. Her paintings are made in the studio, in response to being in situ, in a particular place and time, where memory, sensation and experience all wrestle for attention. Within the realm of landscape painting, Ginny’s paintings take form as studies of harmonious colour relationships, atmospheric sensations of heat, light and space, all the while articulated through particular configurations of flat patches and shapes of colour.

Bio

Ginny Elston is a Scottish artist, researcher and teacher whose practice moves between painting, drawing and sculpture, with philosophy running as a constant thread. She completed her BA in Art History and French at the University of Manchester in 2010, followed by an MFA in Fine Art and Philosophy at the University of Dundee in 2015. In 2025 she was awarded a practice-based PhD at Glasgow School of Art for her research into the connections between painting, sculpture and new materialist philosophies.

Ginny’s studio practice has been recognised nationally and internationally. She was the winner of the Jackson’s Student Award in 2023, and the Pastel Society’s Young Artist Award the same year. In collaboration with Unison Pastels, she developed the Ginny Elston Versatility Set in celebration of this achievement. In 2024, she won the RSA’s Keith Award for her PhD work, and exhibited with the NEAC, the SSA, organised a group show at the Leith School of Art as well as a solo show of drawings in Edinburgh’s White Space Gallery, ‘Sea yellow by Orange Night’. In 2025, she exhibited at the Lido Stores Open Call, No Place Art’s MaterialityOpen Call, a group show at the Tatha Gallery, and will exhibit again Visual Art Scotland’s annual exhibition at the RSA, Edinburgh.

Her work continues to explore the fertile space between structure and spontaneity, philosophy and practice, theory and play — a commitment that underpins both her teaching and her art.

CV

2025
'The Thread That Pulls', Visual Art Scotland 2025 Biennial Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
'This Time Round', Kobi and Teal Gallery, Somerset
'Materiality', No Place Art Open Call, Handbag Factory, London
Lido Stores Open 25, Margate, England
A New Primer, Group Exhibition, Scot-Art, Edinburgh
'Emergence', Tatha Gallery, Newport on Tay, Scotland
Pastel Society's 126th Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

2024
Detail Gallery's Winter Exhibition, Edinburgh
'Arranging Landscapes', Kobi and Teal Gallery, Somerset
SSA 126th Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
'Sea Yellow by Orange Night', Solo Exhibition, Whitespace
A New Primer, Group Exhibition, Scot-Art, Edinburgh
VAS Now and Then, Dalkeith Palace, Midlothian
NEAC's Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
RSA's 198th Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
'no:where:now:here', Group Exhibition, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh

2023
'Where They Meet', Kobi and Teal Gallery, Somerset
RWA's 170th Annual Exhibition', Bristol
A New Primer, Group Exhibition at Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh
Pastel Society's 124th Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
'Rising Artists Exhibition: Jackson's Painting Prize 2023', Group Exhibition at Bankside Gallery, London
'Objects of Conviction', Joint Exhibition at Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh

2022
'Shadows in Green Shade', Solo Exhibition at Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh
'Reversals', Joint Exhibition at Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh
Transatlantic Sculpture Workshop Residency Pop-up Exhibition, Cambridge Artworks, Cambridge

2021
Autumn Exhibition, Six Foot Gallery, Glasgow
Summer Exhibition, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh

2020
'Becoming and Going // 来来去去(lái lái qù qù)', Solo Exhibition, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh
MFA Arts & Humanities Showcase, Alma College, Michigan, USA

2019
Confluence: Tradition in Contemporary Art, 3-part Group Exhibition, Montclair State University USA, Dundee University and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China
Elevations + Revelations, Solo Exhibition, Wushan Gallery, Chongqing, China
a thread, a rip, a seed, Solo Exhibition, Dimensions Art Centre, Chongqing, China

2018
Persevere Group Exhibition, Oseana Arts Centre, Bergen, Norway

2016
MFA Degree Show, DJCAD, Dundee
Oscillations, 2-part Group Exhibition, DJCAD, Dundee and Aegina, Greece

2015
Winters Tales, MFA Group Exhibition, DJCAD, Dundee
The Ruler and The Realm, Solo Exhibition, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh