Ailsa Turner-Gibb
Painter
“I write this, to you, at a difficult time and in a troubled world. Part of what I love about painting is how it can distract a busy brain and fidgety hands, leaving space for larger questions to simmer in the background. Is that still desirable when those bigger questions already dominate the rest of the day?”
Sellisternian, 2023. Watercolour and mixed media on paper
Twelve self portraits spread across four seasons
“So 2025 finds me with little insight or reassurance to offer you as you wander this digital exhibition. Can you settle for these snapshots from the past three years, of projects completed and the messy circumstances that they sprang from? Maybe you’ll see what I can’t say and find some comfort among the hues, brushstrokes and fun little fiddly details from right at the end of the painting.”
Self Portrait, 2025
Indigo with black acrylic ink on prepared paper with gesso
This work is from a series of self portraits ongoing through 2025. See more here.
In Progress – Self Portrait with Vitamin D, 2025
Painting in some of that ‘natural light’ that artists are supposed to love so much.
“It’s been a relief to gather these images and to be reminded of what is possible. To remember that my future self will appreciate what I make, even if I struggle to do so today. That the big questions persist either way, so you may as well get something colourful out of it.” – Ailsa Turner-Gibb, 2025
Figure with…
Twelve A2 paintings on paper from the ‘Figure with…’ series exploring the crossovers of mediums and subject matter, 2023. See more here.
Threadbare
click to zoom
Self Portraits, mixed media on canvas from the 2024 series ‘Threadbare.’ See more here.
Postcard Landscapes
Over 2024 Turner-Gibb worked on hundreds of small postcard sized landscapes, collected here like a patchwork blanket.
About Ailsa Turner Gibb
Ailsa Turner-Gibb is a painter and unpaid carer based in the Scottish Borders who works across a range of traditional and mixed media. Turner-Gibb keeps a monthly art journal on their website as an alternative to social media.
Recent exhibitions include An Exhibition of Sketchbooks, Little Art Hub (Galashiels, 2024), Galashiels Studio Club 76th Annual Exhibition, Old Gala House (Galashiels, 2024), Neuk Perspectives, Patriothall Gallery (Edinburgh, 2024) and In Our Hands, North Light Arts (Dunbar, 2023). Turner-Gibb contributed to an article on Autism and creativity, Raining on Rain Man: why and how autistic people can be creative, published by It’s That Nice, 2024
If you saw something that piqued your curiosity visit Ailsa Turner-Gibb’s ongoing art journal:
Find out more about In Tension and see exhibiting pages from other artists