Derek Eland

Derek Eland (born 16 September 1961) is a multidisciplinary artist based in his home county of Cumbria, United Kingdom. While his main art practice looks at what it is to be human - he was an official war artist based in Afghanistan during 2011. He is also an accomplished landscape painter, working mainly in oil. Eland’s reaction and love of his native Cumbrian landscape is rooted in his family’s background in farming - he has made art for around thirty years.

Following several successful exhibitions of his landscape paintings, he was Artist in Residence for Carlisle City Council and, after the devastating Cumbrian Floods 2009, became an Artist in Residence in Cockermouth, Cumbria, working with businesses and residents of Cockermouth to create an artwork which became an image for the town. Still based in Cumbria, today Eland works and exhibits nationally and internationally.

Career

Eland was educated at Durham University where he gained an honours degree in Politics. Following a year as a sabbatical student president at Durham he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1984 reaching the rank of Captain. After leaving the Army he worked as a management consultant, firstly in the Middle East and latterly in the UK as a government adviser. His last role was as the UK head of Culture Change for a global management consultancy.

Art Practice

While he has always made art, In 2007 Eland went to art college at the University of Cumbria and gained a MA Contemporary Fine Art: University of Cumbria.

His main art practice looks at what it is like to be human, particularly in stressful and difficult situations. Much of his work is created on location using 'Diary Rooms' - a technique he has pioneered, and then re-contextualised in gallery settings. In 2011 Eland was an official war artist with the British Army in Helmand, Afghanistan. He spent a month on the front line where he set up a series of diary rooms and asked soldiers and civilians, Western and Afghan, to write their stories on postcards. The resulting work has been exhibited worldwide, including the Imperial War Museum, Art Month Sidney, The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum and, in 2014, Derek Eland: Diary Rooms 11 November 2014 - 26 February 2015 - Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

His work has been short-listed for both the International Celeste and the Salon Art Prizes and in 2014 his work was shortlisted for the Museums and Heritage Awards for Excellence. Eland co-curates an art gallery in his own home and studio in Carlisle, called The Gallery at Number Three, 3 Hartington Place, Carlisle, Cumbria CA1 1HL., which exhibits his own work as well as the work of other national and international artists.

Diary Rooms - being human on the front line in Afghanistan

Eland's book about his time in Afghanistan 'Diary Rooms - being human on the front line in Afghanistan' is being published in 2014 with the support of the Arts Council.

Derek Eland's Website