Emily Jolley
Statement
Painting allows me to create spaces and atmospheres that I would not be able to achieve in other media, such as writing and talking. With paint there can be a dialogue about form and colour, creating places of wit and sadness.
I began my study of art after leaving a career in nursing; initially attending Reigate School of Art in 1990 followed by a degree in Fine Art at Newcastle Polytechnic. In 1994 I won a sponsored studio at Art Space, Portsmouth. Moving to Brighton I became a member of the Red Herring Studios and currently am part of the Phoenix Art Organisation.
The starting point for my work is an image that I have been attracted to, this could be a sketch, a picture in a magazine or a photograph. Whilst at college a tutor said to me that I should “Just do!” and that questions will be answered in the process of painting. I have found this to be very true – at times I have produced more than I would like to show but in the making have learnt about myself and the medium. Though at times this is a frustrating process, it allows me to work freely and experimentally. I now see potential in pieces of work that initially felt incomplete.
At present working on “Food Diary” I am interested in what we eat, how we eat, and in some aspects how it affects our health. In this project friends have taken photographs of the food and drink consumed over the period of a day. With the visual evidence I paint or draw a series of pictures representing what I see. The pictures explore colour, rhythms and often geometric shapes found in the routine of everyday life. Familiarity and common objects around us is an ongoing theme in my work, as are landscapes where I enjoy the spaces of this subject matter, which goes back to being brought up in rural Suffolk. The love of the countryside has fed into another current project which is painting wild birds that I have seen in the garden or on my walks.
