Artist Mairi Blair Follow.Art Card

About me

In her depictions of figurative drawings, artist Mairi Blair explores classical figuration and modern abstraction. Through layers of mixed media marks, pencil becomes as visceral as the body; each mark breathes a life of its own on the page. Through the loose application of media, the distinction between how the body is perceived and how it feels based on lived experience begins to collapse.

Brought up in the Highlands of Scotland, Blair graduated from Grays School of Art in 2025. Her studies centred around building narrative through figurative paintings that depict her childhood experiences with cancer. Finishing her studies, she has exhibited in several group exhibitions across the UK. Notably, she was a part of the inaugural Royal Society of Portrait Painters Drawing Prize Exhibition in 2025, and she continues to build a studio-led practice that focuses on revealing the human.

Working at a large scale allows her drawings to become immersive, inviting viewers to step into another person’s inner world. Drawing is, an act of translation: a way to give form to experiences and emotions that resist language. Each mark becomes a trace of memory, sensation, or change. She highlights how the body is a vessel of memory rather than an idealised object. She emphasises that we are shaped not by perfection but by what we endure and carry forward.

Much of her process begins with observational drawing, particularly studies of the moving body. These drawings act as both a foundation and a point of departure. During the process of creating work, the figure is constantly rebuilt, redrawn and refigured. Dripping paint, smeared charcoal and scraped surfaces, the works all take on an energy of their own. She attempts to translate physical movements into painterly gestures. She views the finished piece as a story, allowing these early marks to remain visible, creating tension between construction and erasure, highlighting the importance of what marks are left behind.