Grace Crabtree is an artist based in Bridport, West Dorset. Her paintings, often using the ancient techniques of egg tempera and fresco, are grounded in the experience of walking or swimming through a place, while unearthing folkloric, geological, and mythic narratives.
Since graduating from the Ruskin School of Art in 2019, Grace has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions, and attended artist residencies in France, Portugal, and Cyprus. She is currently enrolled on the Turps Correspondence Course, and her solo exhibition of new fresco and egg tempera paintings - Elemental Drift - was held at Bridport Arts Centre in 2024.
CV
Grace Crabtree (b. 1997, UK)
Based in Bridport, Dorset, UK
gracecrabtree.co.uk | grace.crabtree@gmail.com
Education
Turps Banana Correspondence Course 2023-25; 2020-21
Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, Bachelor of Fine Art, 2016-2019 (First Class)
Falmouth University, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, 2015-2016 (Distinction)
Exhibitions
2025
Upcoming: London Art Fair with Bridport Contemporary Gallery (22-26 January)
Upcoming: The Dorset Pavilion, Bridport Arts Centre (8 February-15 March)
2024
Elemental Drift, solo show of new fresco and egg tempera paintings, Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, West Dorset
50 x £50, The Auction Collective
2023
Colour, Texture, Substance, No Name, a Warbling Collective exhibition at Kingsgate Project Space
Works on paper release, online with The Art Unit
Grace Crabtree: Studio Sale 2023, online auction with The Auction Collective
2022
Vague Terrain, SET Lewisham, London
Evolver Prize Summer Exhibition, ACEarts, Somerset
Grace Crabtree: Studio Sale 2022, online auction with The Auction Collective
Cross Pollination, group residency and exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport, Dorset
2021
Cohort.Art, Turps Correspondence Course 20/21 (online)
SWAc Annual Open Exhibition, South West Academy of Fine & Applied Arts, Sidmouth, Devon
Small Pleasures II, All Mouth Gallery (online)
Dorset Art Weeks 2021, Bridport Contemporary, Bridport, Dorset
Life on Venus III, The Tub and The Auction Collective (online)
Life on Venus II: The Human, The Tub and The Auction Collective (online)
Return of the Natives II, Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport, Dorset (virtual showcase + gallery exhibition)
2020
Life on Venus I: The Landscape, The Tub, Hackney, London, plus virtual auction at The Auction Collective
Painters Still Painting, Bridport Contemporary (bridportcontemporary.com) (online)
19+1, group exhibition and reunion, one year after graduating from the Ruskin (19plus.one) (online)
Double Time, solo exhibition at the end of artist residency at Zaratan, Lisbon, Portugal
New Narratives, Literary and Scientific Institute, Bridport, Dorset
2019
Ruskin Degree Show, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
Ensemble Fictions, Silvie, Oxford
St Anne's Arts Festival, Oxford
2018
Middle Ground, Oxford
Hogacre Common Art Show, Oxford
2017
St Anne’s Arts Festival, Oxford
Dolphin Gallery, Oxford
Internships
2018
Musée Matisse, Nice, France
John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK
Residencies, prizes & grants
2024
Cyprus College of Art, Lempa, Cyprus - artist residency
2023
Recipient of an Arts Council England DYCP grant for ‘The Art of Fresco’
Buon fresco course - ‘Ancient techniques for contemporary artists’, Bosa Art School, Sardinia
2022
Cyprus College of Art, Lempa, Cyprus - artist residency
2020
Zaratan, Lisbon, Portugal - artist residency
2019
Shortlisted for the Kevin Slingsby Prize
DRAWinternational, Caylus, France - artist residency
The Art of Fresco: an artist studio video
Watch Grace talking through the process of buon fresco, a medieval and Renaissance technique used for creating wall paintings in which the image becomes 'stone'.
The video features works from Grace's solo exhibition Elemental Drift, with new works in buon fresco and egg tempera, currently on view at the Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, until 3 February 2024.