David Elliott
My work often begins with site-specific walking, collecting found objects and making sketches, leading to assemblages constructed of found objects and spontaneous poetry. The work is then developed in the studio where I use charcoal, pastels, acrylic and oil paints, layering glazes and impasto paints to evoke internal experience of place, often with reference to archetypes and mythology.
My practice is deeply informed by my background in art psychotherapy, with themes of identity, memory, and the interplay of the conscious and unconscious.
Lived Experience
A recent project 30 Oaks – 30 Silver saw me revisit seven locations across the UK where I had lived over three decades, planting oak saplings and burying silver coins as symbolic acts of reflection and renewal. These journeys generated sketches, totemic assemblages and mixed-media works exploring contrition, trauma and transformation. The 2025 exhibition A Time and Place at OVADA, Oxford, marked the culmination of my MFA studies, extending my inquiry into personal and ancestral memory.
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