Colette Lilley
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Biography
Colette Lilley is a drawing artist whose work examines focused perception and the slowing of habitual looking. Working primarily on paper and within tightly controlled parameters, she constructs portraits through duration rather than immediacy, requiring sustained attention from both maker and viewer.
Her drawings are developed through grid-based structures in which each square is drawn in isolation and accumulates over time. This fragmentation slows visual recognition, disrupting expectations of instant comprehension and reasserting looking as an active, temporal process. Restriction of medium and format is central to her practice, not as an aesthetic choice, but as a method of sharpening attention and compressing time.
Lilley holds a Masters in Art and Design Practice from Loughborough University (2009), where she explored the link between dyslexia and her creative process. She has exhibited nationally, including at the Mall Galleries, London, and with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.
Awards include the Visual Arts Association Exhibition & Scholarship Award (2024) and the Comme Ca Art x AWOL Studios Open Call (2023).
She is co-curator of the DRAWING(PAPER)SHOW, a series of international exhibitions with publication and Directory of Drawing Artists.
Artist Statement
My work is fundamentally about focused perception and the slowing of habitual looking. I am interested in how observation is often superficial, shaped by speed and familiarity, and how sustained attention can reveal what is otherwise overlooked, including aspects that encourage self-reflection. The work challenges expectations of immediate recognition, asking viewers to slow down and consider the process of seeing. Drawing becomes a deliberate exercise in perception, where each moment of looking accumulates into understanding.
I construct my drawings through discrete units (squares), each drawn in isolation and accumulating over time to form a whole. These grid-based structures slow visual recognition, disrupt instant comprehension, and reassert looking as an active, temporal experience. Limiting medium and format is central to the work, not as an aesthetic choice, but as a method to sharpen attention and compress time. The grid is not decorative; it is the logic through which perception is tested and sustained.
Statement of Intent
During my time at Bridewell, I intend to explore colour through a limited palette of primary colours. Working within my established grid system, I aim to deepen my understanding of how I observe, interpret, and construct colour within portraiture.
Alongside this, I will use the time and space to critically examine my creative process itself, questioning whether it functions primarily as habit or takes on the qualities of ritual. Through repetition and sustained practice, I hope to better understand how structure and routine shape both the act of making and the outcomes of my work.
