Chelsea Frew

Chelsea Frew is a Scottish painter based in South East London. She studied Communication Design at Glasgow School of Art, specialising in illustration, and now works primarily across painting and drawing.

‘A lot of my work is interested in atmosphere, memory, place, and quiet moments of human connection. I’m drawn to work that feels lived-in and emotionally familiar, while still leaving room for ambiguity.’

‘I often feel slightly outside of moments while they are happening. Painting is a way of going back to them afterwards. I work from my own photographs, found images and bits of different scenes. I move people around, take things out and put together things that were never actually in the same place. By the time I paint something, it has usually changed anyway. Partly through memory and partly because I’ve decided it would be better somewhere else. People are often waiting, resting, looking away or busy with something I can’t quite see. I’m drawn to those fairly ordinary moments that can somehow feel funny, awkward or a little lonely at the same time. Drawing is at the centre of how I work. I paint, wipe things away, draw back over them and usually have several paintings going at once. I’m trying to get better at not controlling everything. The parts I didn’t plan often end up being the bits I like most.’