Her travels around the globe have exposed her to other cities and cultures, the wilderness
and the Outback.
Erraid Gaskell is a modern abstract expressionist artist born in Perth, Scotland, whose vivid landscapes explore the intersection of reality and imagination. Growing up on the Black Isle and later in Dhaka, Bangladesh, her diverse cultural experiences have profoundly influenced her artistic vision. After graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design with a specialization in Fine Art, Erraid has developed a distinctive style that transforms landscapes into dreamscapes through memory, emotion, and creative interpretation.
Erraid's Nocturnal Creative Process
Erraid prefers painting at night, finding that her creativity flows best during these quiet hours. While others sleep, she explores themes of dreaming, journeying, and nocturnal environments, transforming daytime observations into artistic expressions on canvas. This nighttime work significantly shifts her scenes from pure landscape toward dreamscape, creating works that exist between reality and fantasy.
Global Influences on Gaskell's Art
Having lived across multiple continents, from Scotland to Bangladesh to Australia, Erraid considers herself "a person of many different places." These diverse cultural and geographical experiences have become fundamental to her artistic approach. Her travels around the globe have exposed her to varied cities, cultures, wilderness, and the Australian Outback, all of which appear transformed in her artwork through layers of memory and imagination.
Artistic Technique and Exhibition History
Erraid's process incorporates layering and collage techniques, utilizing tissue paper and mixed media elements to evoke sensations and memories associated with particular locations. She works with a wide range of materials including acrylic, pastel, and oil, creating pieces with multiple layers of color where translucent and opaque shapes overlap. Since graduating in 2020, she has exhibited extensively, with solo shows including "Dreamscapes" and "Fragments of Home" at the Green Gallery, and participation in numerous group exhibitions across the UK, including Thompson's Galleries in London and the Whitehouse Gallery in Kirkcudbright.