Painting & Printmaking School of Fine Art
Esther Douglas
My art practice is centred around being curious in the stories that surround me. Paintings begin as drawings scribbled in my notebook, made out and about in the places I find myself in. Documenting the people and places around me in a sketchbook is a way to pause with a moment that is often overlooked, and beauty that can be missed because of its familiarity. These often get worked up into larger scale oil paintings on canvas, where the drawn line is still important, alongside thicker impasto marks layered up on the surface.
Paintings have become a way to linger with a story, listen and stop. I hope that the portraits and figurative pieces might prompt people to look again at that which they might already know, but are encouraged to pause with and observe more deeply. Maybe we can wonder a little more at ordinary things. I hope that they tell some of the story of a face, a person, and be – in some ways – an introduction to the life of another. A moment of pause, I hope my works encourage, to stop and look beyond.
In these gatherings of faces and clusters of figures, I want to prompt questions about community and encourage us to think about how we coexist with others in a space. Different narratives surround us all of the time; I hope my paintings can introduce you to the lives of the people and places that surround me, in the hopes that it might spark your curiosity in the stories that surround you, wherever you are.
All works are for sale, please contact my email for any enquiries. (Prices on request)
Degree Show Install Shots
Photographs of the install at Glasgow School of Art Degree show, 2025. This is a section of the body of work make over this final year of Painting and Printmaking, from my series ‘Letters from Glasgow,’ that sought to capture some of the stories that make up this city, in paintings, prints, drawings and a publication.
Letters from Glasgow
Dear Reader,
This series is a documentation of some of the pieces of artwork made over the course of my final year. It holds the stories of some faces that make up the city which I now call home. It is a documentary in paint. Drawings and watercolour sketches and oil paintings make up the research output of time spent living in, observing and contributing to life in the city of Glasgow. Captured in paint are moments of overlooked life shared by its inhabitants, as well as large scale portraits of a few faces of those that live or have lived here.
Community is a funny word with lots of associations and expectations that come with its use. We, here in Glasgow, are unified by sharing the same geographical location. I hope that these works might ask more of us, and spark a greater connection between two human beings than just living in the same land.
Within this series are ten large scale portraits of some of the people that make up this city. The subjects of these paintings all have their own story and reason for being here. Snippets of shared conversations are included in the publication, alongside the paintings and drawings made of each person.
Some people painted I know well, others are newfound friends that began through reaching out in conversation. Some people have lived here all their lives, others less time and some just spent a short season here. Glasgow is full of life. Here are some of the lives and stories that make up its culture.
Paintings have become, for me, a way to linger with a story, listen and stop. I hope this might somehow be a way to meet these cohabitants of Glasgow, like letters of introduction or an encouragement to engage with the community in which we find ourselves.
In these conversations I asked each person painted about the place of Glasgow in their story. Many beautiful and inspiring things came of each conversation, relating to the starting point of our joint geographical location, but also about other things as we continued talking. Themes of home and place, familiarity and pace, art and music all were spoken about as we shared time together. The paintings are the outworking of these interactions.
Other paintings of clusters of people or other mundane moments of life here are also included. These scenes might be familiar but I hope they might prompt you to see them differently and look again.
May this spark your curiosity in the people and stories that surround you, wherever you are.
Love from,
Esther
Project Links
Look Again
A silent conversation I had with the streets of Glasgow and its inhabitants, as I took my large scale paintings outside.
This project began outside of the studio, interacting and living alongside other people in Glasgow. The stories of people I interacted with became drawings and paintings worked up in the studio. The project concluded as I took the completed paintings back outside, into the streets of the city, the streets that are shared by those in this publication.
Conversations that inspired this series of paintings were echoed in conversations that closed the project, as people stopped and looked at the works. We talked about the art, how these pieces came about, the stories of the sitters and of Glasgow itself. It felt like a fitting conclusion to this story.
It was interesting to see the variety of responses to large 1m square paintings of heads that were placed around the city. Some stopped and looked, others gave a quick glance as they passed, whilst others’ eyes remained on their phones as they walked by.
In the windows above the old M&S on Sauchiehall Street, a building that is now used as artist studio spaces, letters have been placed that read the words, ‘Look Again.’ This encompasses some of the message I hope to convey with this body of work: an encouragement to look again at that which you may already know, but have grown blind to because of its familiarity. It is urging people to notice.
How often do we look again?
Do we look at something long enough to see it properly?
I hope these paintings, the portraits that render faces larger than life size, force us to reckon with and look properly at people.
We see people all of the time. Especially living in a big city like Glasgow, we are constantly brushing shoulders with others. But I wonder how many of the people we come across and interact with we actually see, and see properly.
These photographs were taken as I took the paintings to different spots in the city.
I hope they encourage you to slow down and look again.
