Hi, I'm a contemporary visual artist based in Leeds, UK.

Through my work, I explore the feelings and experiences of dissonance and contradiction I encounter within everyday life. Often these sensations are prompted by  a sense of geographical or psychological displacement: seeing something out of (expected) context. Often it leads to assumptions being overturned, and I find it intriguing how it also encourages different ways of perceiving ‘reality’, and recognising different  yet concurrent ‘realities’.

Anything and everything may come under scrutiny as part of this process. I never know what is going to catch my eye and disorientate my world. I am fascinated by people, figures, faces. 

The processes I use are important to me. i like to start with no idea of the outcome; I want to explore the world through an open-ended window, with no pre-conceived ideas. We all spend our lives working on the basis of pre-conception and assumption. But in my art, there are no rules or assumptions. 

My work is figurative, allegorical and symbolic, and I use a wide range of media, including digital painting and drawing, collage techniques and more traditional materials. Working from drawings and found images, the subjects which catch my eye are often re-drawn, layered and juxtaposed in a way which further encourages the challenging of assumptions. I view the digital layering, collage and highly reflective techniques employed in the finished works as very important: I see them as an allegorical reflection of my investigation of the subject.

 If you would like further information about my practice or drawings or paintings on this website, please do contact me by email.

Find me on facebook as Gillian Holding Visual Artist and you may like to look at my regular blog Life and Art.