Cambuslang's Emma-Louise Grady is taking Scottish art world by storm

“I was not expecting everything that happened in my final year at art school,” says Emma-Louise Grady. “I mean, I thought I’d graduate, get a part-time job and learn to drive, see how things went….”

Instead, while still in her fourth year at Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee, the Cambuslang 24-year-old won the Royal Scottish Academy John Kinross Scholarship, which gave her the chance to work in Florence for two months.

Emma-Louise at work in her Glasgow studio.

Glasgow firm Enterprise Mentoring chose her as their artist-in-residence, which set her up in a city centre studio.

And last year, she was given the opportunity to exhibit her work at the Royal Scottish Academy for its exhibition, New Contemporaries 2020, where she was awarded the prestigious Fleming-Wyfold Foundation Award, for ‘best painter or draughtsman/woman’.

Working primarily with base paints and acrylic paint pens, Emma-Louise produces big, bold, colourful artworks, which are highly decorative and draw the eye in to the fine detail.

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“People say they look like aboriginal art, but that’s never been my inspiration,” she explains. “It’s much more intuitive – I paint from the top of my head: that line leads to those dots, which lead to that circle, and those colours… I love colour.

“I’ve loved to draw since I was at school and I always knew I didn’t want to do an office job, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do until I went to college.”

After three years at Glasgow Clyde College, Emma-Louise joined Duncan of Jordanstone where she graduated with an honours degree in fine art.

Being chosen by Enterprise Mentoring as its artist-in-residence gave Emma-Louise the chance to work in her own studio – something which has been a godsend since the start of the pandemic.

“It’s good to be able to lose myself in my work,” she agrees. “I really miss the galleries and exhibitions – it has been a fantastic opportunity to take part in online exhibitions but it’s just not the same.”

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Emma’s work, entitled The Summer Ghosts Fell in Love, was recently part of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts’ online exhibition Interactions of Colour.

Emma-Louise's studio

“I was really excited to be selected to exhibit in such a prestigious gallery,” she says. “As a new artist it has been wonderful to see how my work is recognised and appreciated. My art seeks to heal the heart, soul and mind with its vibrant expressions of freedom and fluidity. I want people to get lost in my work.”

Emma-Louise is now working on a collaboration with Glasgow writers Sophie Cooney and Jack Jamieson.

“I’ve asked them to come up with a poem or love story based on a piece of art I’ll create for Valentine’s Day,” she explains. “It’s a bit different. I have a solo show planned for August, which I really hope will go ahead.”

She smiles: “And I still haven’t learned to drive, so I should probably get on to that too…”