Ewan Murray makes paintings using a meditative studio process that questions the practical and conceptual possibilities of the medium. He’s interested in how paint can be made to convey the specific qualities of an object, how it can describe tension, fragility or weight, and in the differing appearance of the same surface painted thickly or thinly. Equally, he considers how to balance technique with instinct, and how to engage with painting’s history in a way that is open and inclusive. His paintings coalesce gradually through considered acts of layering, editing and revision. Subjects and motifs – containers, reflective surfaces and organic forms – recur across a number of works, generating a circular visual logic, where certain paintings appear to unlock others through their proximity or shared momentum.
Recently, Ewan’s work has centred around the traditional genres of still life and landscape. The paintings make reference to these histories, in subject matter, scale and technique, while seeking to explore their contemporary relevance. He’s also sensitive to painting’s mystical, ungraspable potential, when something occurs that goes beyond didactic thought, and the painting takes on an intrinsic charge of its own. His studio process is to an extent the setting up of a framework in which these moments, which are strangely akin to magic, can happen.
Ewan will be in residence at Sweeney’s Bothy in October 2026. On Eigg, he will spend the week thinking, drawing and making watercolour studies from life – using the dislocation from his physical studio to consider it’s role in his practice, and taking a moment of isolation away from daily routines to develop strategies and ideas to take forward.