Gillian Elliot graduated from Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland in 2004, specialising in printmaking, bookmaking and paper cutting. As a student, she was awarded the Andrew Grant Bequest Travel Scholarship and the British Airways Student Travel Award 2004. She also contributed to group shows in Glasgow and Boston as well as several book fairs in London.
During her third year at Edinburgh College of Art, she was accepted at the Rhode Island School of Design as part of the student exchange program where she had the opportunity to work at a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents as part of the course ‘Art as a Source for Healing’.
After spending a year teaching and working with both children and adults with specific learning difficulties, Gillian attended Goldsmiths College, University of London, where she obtained her Art and Design Postgraduate Certificate of Education in 2006. Thereafter, Gillian spent the next three years teaching up to A-level in both state and private schools in London before moving to Singapore in 2009 where she spent a year at First Toa Payoh Secondary School teaching Visual Arts.