Elidh Gardiner

Elidh Gardiner

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Lives & works in Whittingham, Northumberland

I use my enjoyment of walking and cycling in north Northumberland to inspire my paintings. Every painting recalls a particular walk or cycle ride, particularly between Coquetdale and Whittingham Vale, where I can always either see Simonside or Hedgehope and the Cheviot.

I work in a variety of scales and media, from small watercolours, coloured pencil and mixed media to larger acrylics. 

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I have been involved in art all my life. I have a degree in Graphic Design from Newcastle Polytechnic and worked as a professional Graphic Designer for eight years before training to teach Craft, Design and Technology. Three years later, moving from East Anglia back to Newcastle, married but out of work, I got supply work teaching Art and Design at Dunston Comprehensive and never looked back. Twenty years of having great fun ensued, trying everything from clay work, batik, printing, scenery painting, making canvas stretchers, getting my students to keep me up to date with IT. My last secondary teaching job was Head of Art at Ashington High School, which I left when we moved to Fiji, where I taught Art part time at the University of the South Pacific, studied for an MEd and had my first Exhibition.

Since returning to Britain I have taught adult education classes and spent more time on my own painting. I won the Alnmouth Arts festival Poster Competition in 2015 which prompted me to start painting larger works. My work can be found at the Coquetdale Art Gallery in Rothbury, Northumberland.