Gillian Mather studied at Edinburgh College of Art as both a graduate student (1964-1968) and a postgraduate student (1968-1969). She continued her postgraduate studies at The Royal College of Art, London (1969-1972), where she won the Henriques Award for best woman artist. She has been elected a Professional Member of Visual Arts Scotland.
Gillian has had two solo exhibitions at the Arusha Gallery (Edinburgh). Her work has been selected for numerous mixed exhibitions; most recently, Grayson's Art Club 2nd Exhibition (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, 2021/22), The 196th Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition (Edinburgh, 2022), where she won the Edinburgh Printmakers Publishing Award and The Centenary Exhibition of Visual Arts Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2024).
In her painting entitled ‘Forever’, Gillian aims to express the emotion of love between two people. To achieve this, she incorporates elements of abstraction within a basic figurative form, using strong, simple colours and brushstrokes. To emphasise the depth of emotion, she avoids details that are inconsequential and would therefore become a distraction that reduces the emotional impact. Her approach is to experiment with new forms of figurative painting that are easily accessible, will convey a profound artistic pleasure to the viewer and make their heart sing.