London-based artist Esmé McMillan-Scott creates evocative works primarily in oils on board and mixed media drawing. Her practice centres on a continuous cycle of accumulation and erasure - adding layers, sanding them back, drawing into, and reworking the surface so that form emerges gradually. Rather than settling in a single pass, each painting undergoes multiple iterations, leaving behind traces of decisions no longer visible but still deeply felt. Shifting from earlier explorations of solitude toward a more cryptic atmosphere, her recent compositions feature forms and figures caught between belonging and standing apart, drawing on subjects that carry subtle histories, worn paths, and faded surfaces.

By balancing quiet restraint with unresolved ambiguity, Esmé’s work invites viewers into a space that feels deeply familiar, functioning as a tactile archive of memory, history, and physical transformation.

She says: "These paintings are about things that are easy to miss - a worn path, a faded patch of colour. I wanted to spend time with that instead of looking past it."

Esmé studied Film and Television at Bristol before training in Illustration at Brighton, graduating with First Class Honours in Fine Art Painting in 2023. She went on to complete The Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2024.