Gillian Westland

Gillian is an Artist working outside Edinburgh. She studied Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, specialising in Sculpture and conceptual art. Her work was heavily focused on the marks we leave in time and centred mainly on the human experience, however Gillian  has always been fascinated with Animals and nature. Now her need to create is driven by her interests in animals and nature and how our marks in time directly effect the natural world. At a time when we need to address our actions as a species, the work Gillian is  making is more and more relevant to that cause.

Gillian searches for a message in the eyes of the animals and birds that she  paints, seeing them as little messengers asking us questions about ourselves and our connections with nature. Recently Gillian’s work has been focused on Birds. Their ability to view our world from a completely different perspective is both intriguing and inspiring. Perhaps they see something which we cannot. Its this apparent wisdom that Gillian searches for in her work, while the simple act of looking and observing what surrounds us in nature reminds us of how delicate our world is.

Gillian was recently a finalist in the ‘David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the year 2019’ exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. An amazing opportunity to directly contribute to the conservation fight. This experience has cemented her desire to create art that can bring us back to nature and let those silent voices of the wild be heard.