Elaine McCracken (b. UK) is a visual artist based between the Isle of Wight and London. She works primarily in painting and drawing, using acrylic, oil, and mixed media to explore fluid states of perception, materiality, and the relationship between mind, body, and environment. Her practice draws on a long-standing engagement with somatic disciplines, including meditation and qigong, informing an intuitive and process-led approach to image-making.
McCracken studied Constructed Textiles at Central Saint Martins (BA Hons, 1988–1991) and first turned to painting in the late 1990s, culminating in her debut solo exhibition in 1999. She refocused on painting in 2016 and has since developed a sustained studio practice. She is an alum of the Turps Correspondence Course (2022–2023) and a member of the Unprimed Collective, with whom she exhibits regularly in London.
b. 1968 United Kingdom
U.K based
Education
- 2022 – 2023 Turps Correspondence Course
- 1988 – 1991 B.A (Hons) Constructed Textile Design Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London
- 1986 – 1987 Art Foundation Southampton University
Exhibitions
- 2025 Time to Time, group show Safe House Peckham London
- 2024 Layers with Unprimed Collective, the department Store Brixton London
- 2024 Lick Exhibition, Safe House Peckham London
- 2023 Do Not Swallow, Safe House Peckham London
- 2022 Abstracting the Landscape, Workshop 97, Ventnor
- 2019 Group Show at Bankside Gallery, London
- Quay Open Biennale, Isle of Wight
- Art for Calm Space (with Louise Giblin) Tunbridge Wells
- 2017 Quay Open Biennale, Isle of Wight