Artist Statement
Leanne Dewar is an artist working between Glasgow and Alloa whose practice is increasingly driven by a desire to engage directly with the natural elements—earth, water, fire and air. Through drawing, painting and ceramic work, she is expanding her material conversations and deepening her connection to elemental processes, pushing her practice into new, multisensory territory.

Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) in Painting, Dewar has continually challenged the expectations of watercolour, treating it as a sculptural and process-responsive medium. Her work explores the dynamic meeting point between intention and unpredictability, often allowing forces such as gravity, temperature, evaporation and atmosphere to shape the outcome of each piece.

Growing up in Girvan, her early experiences of painting outdoors and creating alongside nature continue to inform her approach. Memories of improvisation, sensory freedom and coastal exploration underpin her commitment to play, curiosity and openness to surprising results.

Recent experiments have seen Dewar working with natural earth pigments, freezing watercolour washes and encapsulating washes within handblown glass spheres. Her resulting ‘3D paintings’ demonstrate a fearless curiosity, merging humour with material investigation and offering viewers an encounter with watercolour transformed.

This growing elemental focus marks a new chapter in her practice—one that seeks not only to work with nature as collaborator, but to immerse fully in the fundamental forces that shape both materials and the world around us.