STREETS: A selection of prints and paintings made in the period 1993 - 2004 “The dark, confident lines of Emma’s prints record characters who appear to be escaping into a turbulent anonymity, avoiding recognition in a fast moving web of wiry shapes and pattern. Her prints have come increasingly to depict group scenes but with her paintings she tends to focus on the neediness of one or two individuals. In her earlier work she found herself concealing painful circumstances of a single subject behind a humorous narrative but her paintings have brought a far more immediate sense of warmth and acceptance between viewer and subject. There is nothing piteous or sentimental, no self-conscious crusade to involve us in the rights of those oppressed by society. When Emma presents the obvious difficulty of navigating an invalid car or the mixed feeling of joy in risk and fearful anticipation of a cyclist hemmed in by roaring lorries on a Vauxhall roundabout, the love of place wins out. We notice the colours and the light, the lettered signs and the other physical emblems of urban life which bring familiarity and reassurance. The interdependence of humanity is constant and there is is no self-indulgent loneliness. The paintings come from a sincere, personal alignment with the characters depicted and at the same time celebrate individual independence. In all her work Emma seeks to describe the movement associated with people in a particular setting, to refine that movement to some degree and to record it in an “impulsive expressive manner.” She has also explored the findings of Futurist and Op artists and used fragmented form and pattern to describe movement. She wants to recreate in her work incidents which were in fact over in seconds. For this she depends on her own visual memory rather than the eye of the camera There are echos of Munch in her work, when she is drawn to the poignant, northern European tension within a scene and of even of Kitaj when, with unpredictable and exuberant colour, she portrays private people - never caricatures - whose lives she understands. In the work of Francis Bacon for instance, the agony is so close to the surface. In Emma’s work there is a sense of moving beyond confrontation, the defiant and passionate struggle to survive feels worthwhile, to those that have enjoyed freedom.” Lottie Hoare 1998 Click on image to see more detail

STREETS:

A selection of prints and paintings made in the period 1993 - 2004

“The dark, confident lines of Emma’s prints record characters who appear to be escaping into a turbulent anonymity, avoiding recognition in a fast moving web of wiry shapes and pattern. Her prints have come increasingly to depict group scenes but with her paintings she tends to focus on the neediness of one or two individuals. In her earlier work she found herself concealing painful circumstances of a single subject behind a humorous narrative but her paintings have brought a far more immediate sense of warmth and acceptance between viewer and subject.

There is nothing piteous or sentimental, no self-conscious crusade to involve us in the rights of those oppressed by society. When Emma presents the obvious difficulty of navigating an invalid car or the mixed feeling of joy in risk and fearful anticipation of a cyclist hemmed in by roaring lorries on a Vauxhall roundabout, the love of place wins out. We notice the colours and the light, the lettered signs and the other physical emblems of urban life which bring familiarity and reassurance. The interdependence of humanity is constant and there is is no self-indulgent loneliness. The paintings come from a sincere, personal alignment with the characters depicted and at the same time celebrate individual independence.

In all her work Emma seeks to describe the movement associated with people in a particular setting, to refine that movement to some degree and to record it in an “impulsive expressive manner.” She has also explored the findings of Futurist and Op artists and used fragmented form and pattern to describe movement. She wants to recreate in her work incidents which were in fact over in seconds. For this she depends on her own visual memory rather than the eye of the camera

There are echos of Munch in her work, when she is drawn to the poignant, northern European tension within a scene and of even of Kitaj when, with unpredictable and exuberant colour, she portrays private people - never caricatures - whose lives she understands. In the work of Francis Bacon for instance, the agony is so close to the surface. In Emma’s work there is a sense of moving beyond confrontation, the defiant and passionate struggle to survive feels worthwhile, to those that have enjoyed freedom.”

Lottie Hoare 1998

Click on image to see more detail