A Scottish artist exploring atmosphere and our perception of space, Emily McGhie Jackson blends the line between realities. Taking inspiration from the Scottish landscape and the scripted spaces seen in architecture and video games. Jackson employs exaggerated colour palettes and unconventional viewpoints. Using the immersion of painting to replicate the feeling of mentally occupying one space, whilst physically occupying another.

(b.2004) Emily studied a BA (Hons) for Fine Art: Painting, at Camberwell College of Arts (UAL). She was the winner of the Big Walls and Windows Project in 2023 and was shortlisted for Barbican Arts Group Trust Open and the Scottish Portrait Awards. She has showcased her work both in London and across Scotland, with her first Solo Show ‘Thinking Space’, being held in Dundee in 2024. In 2025 she went on residency with Generator Projects (Dundee) in Zakynthos, Greece and she is currently based at OuterSpaces Dundee.

Artist’s Statement

In my practice, I aim to showcase the disconnect between physically occupying one space, and mentally occupying another. By using an introspective painting practice, I’m able to document the times where I’ve felt detached from the physical world around me. Painting is inherently liminal, as what is shown can be looked at, but not entered, and is also able to show landscapes which infer mood. This means I can simultaneously show where I was physically and mentally, whilst placing the viewer within a liminal space.  

I use colour palettes as a marker for separate places, or to emphasise the falseness within a space. In-between spaces appear foggy and murky, with greys, whites and blacks creating a voidlike baseline in each piece. Whereas doorways, windows and portals contain their own palette, replicating this feeling of inner and outer worlds. Artificial lights are harsher, even within the digital space, as cameras struggle to replicate natural light. This creates more vibrant light changes, which is something I emulate in my emotion based paintings. Natural light is more subtle, with colour changing less drastically, and so I showcase this in spaces I am more literally emulating. 

In my paintings I create clear pathways, often taking inspiration from the scripted spaces within architecture and technology and the views from my own commutes. Scripted space refers to any space which is specifically designed to guide people through it, like within hallways, roads and even the digital space. You are invited to keep scrolling or keep walking. I replicate this feeling of moving through space by creating paintings which guide the viewer past them. Either out the window, through the doorway or out into the landscape. By freezing these spaces, and making them the base of the image, I can invite the viewer to truly spend time inside them, and contemplate what is next.