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.
David Reed Elliott
Born in 1962 in Hampshire, UK
Resides and works in Oxfordshire, UK
Education/training:
2022-2025: MA Fine Art, Falmouth University, UK
2016-2017: Drawing 1, Open College of the Arts, UK
2011-2014: MA Art Therapy, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
1998-2000: National Certificate Illustration & Graphic Design, Cherwell College, Banbury, UK
1988-1991: BA [hons] Theology, London School of Theology, Middlesex University, UK
Selected exhibitions:
2026, O.S.D. 1, (solo exhibition), Oxfordshire, UK [upcoming]
2025, It’s Art, (group-residency exhibition), OVADA, Oxford, UK
2025, Queue, open call, (group exhibition), OVADA Oxford, UK
2025, A time and place, (solo exhibition), OVADA, Oxford, UK
2024, MA Fine Art student exhibition, (group exhibition), The Art Room, Leamington Spa, UK
2023, Art-on-loop, (open call), The Holy Art, London, UK & Athens, Greece
2022, The Jam Factory Arts, (open call), The Jam Factory, Oxford, UK
2011, Coast, (solo exhibition), Kieran Stiles Studios, Oxford, UK
Selected collections:
The Gallery Trust, Oxford UK
SMH Collection, Aylesbury, UK
David R. Elliott is collected by various private collectors in the UK.
Grants, residencies & awards:
2025, Luxembourg Art Prize: Certificate of Artistic Achievement.
2025, Summer Residency, Oxford Visual Arts Development Agency [OVADA], Oxford, UK
2023, The Turing Grant: one month residency in Italy with the Florence University of the Arts & Falmouth University.
Professional contributions (art-related jobs, curatorial contributions, teaching, mentorships, member of a board, etc.):
2025: Workshop facilitator: OVADA, Oxford, UK.
2025: Exhibition invigilator: OVADA, Oxford, UK.
2020-2022: Guest speaker & workshop facilitator, Sketchbookskool: https://www.sketchbookskool.com
2014-present: Art psychotherapist, with special schools in Oxford, UK.
2007-2016: Arts-in-health coordinator: exhibition curator/workshop coordinator/artist commissioner/chair: Arts Planning Group, NHS Healthcare Trusts, UK.
2000-2007: Designer/illustrator/studio manager, Spirit Ltd UK, Thame, Oxfordshire, UK.
1998-2000: Graphic designer, Diocese of St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.
Contact details:
David Reed Elliott
d.reedelliott@gmail.com
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