Libby Lilburn
Mixed Media Artist
Libby Lilburn is a mixed media artist whose deeply personal work combines different mediums and disciplines, allowing room for error and experimentation through the process of creating. For Lilburn, art is a gateway for others to see the world as they do.
“Through my artwork, I aim to raise awareness about hidden disabilities outside stereotypes. Art has
become a gateway for me to express myself and to further understand my own disabilities and neurodiversity. Through creating I have found ways to explain/depict difficulties I personally struggle with, such as living with autism. Through my art I hope to help others to understand something they have no knowledge or prior experience with.”
Final work, Sketching with Betty, and original photograph of the artist working alongside Betty, a chicken.
One of the artist’s favourite materials to incorporate into their work is water-based pigments.
“I particularly love working with watercolours and ink washes, as by building a base through coloured washes I can form the basic form and feel of the piece before adding more textural marks on top.”
Lilburn plays and experiments with various mediums and techniques, finally choosing the medium based on the message and feel they want to portray in the work. They start creating with free and loose marks in the first base layers/materials and build on them to create the finished piece.
Oddities, Libby and Cody. This shows the finished piece using bold blocks of colour, the composition based on an original photograph below.
Libby’s paintings are often autobiographical and draw heavily from their life, primarily around their lived experience of being disabled, and the nuances and complexities that come with it. They use the process of creating as a form of therapy, exploring the bonds between them and their pets, experimenting with sketches, media and colour.
“Through my art I process events that have happened in my life and how they make me stronger as a person. Creating and experimenting with these concepts in my sketchbooks allows me to come to terms with these times and act as a form of therapy in healing from the past. This can be through the materials and media I choose to work in, or even the colours and textures I use which help communicate my own personal experiences through my art.”
Feral Bonds – Freddie, 2024
Libby’s work captures the bond created with pets, who provide comfort and support. These pieces capture everyday moments with pets, past and the present, who often help and understand disability on an instinctual level.
“I hope my work can help by being the starting point for conversations about the struggles of living with a disability and help others to know they are not alone, particularly in regards to ‘non-visible’ conditions.”
Contemplations on PAIN, 2024
finished artwork
work in progress
original image
“I have a great affinity for figure drawing and there are many possibilities when it comes to depicting the body. This allows me to find new ways of working through each project I undertake. I explore these themes of differences using the body as a tool at my discretion.”
About Libby Lilburn
Libby Lilburn recently graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design with a Masters in Fine Art, and is now working in a new studio with their twin brother at Forgan Arts Centre, Newport-on-Tay.
Lilburn recently exhibited with at The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour at the 143rd Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, 2024, winning the Alexander Graham Munro Travel Award for their work, Me, Myself, I & Betty. The Award allowed Lilburn to visit the international watercolour convention, Fabriano in Aquarello in Italy, which they have been taking part in over the last five years.
Find out more about In Tension and see exhibiting pages from other artists