Abstract painter Emma Beer is fascinated with the ways colours, layers and textures interact. From her Canberra studio, brightly coloured paints are mixed, diluted and made to shine. Paint brushes adorn the walls. Paintings in various states of completion are on most surfaces of the light filled studio; walls, floors and tables.
Constantly challenging herself to find new ways of working, Emma is currently jumping into new territory after a recent major exhibition ‘Zooper Dooper’ at Drill Hall Gallery.
‘I’m currently thinking about how I can get out of my comfort zone, because for me it’s important to get beyond predicting what I am going to do next. In my previous body of work I worked with translucent colour, but now I am working with opaque colours and glazes that cross-over and interrupt each other. This is different to my past work where the colours blended. Right now I’m experimenting with new ways of working,’ she says.
Bright oranges, lime greens, pastel purples and blues are prominent in these new works. Colours jump off the canvas and interact. Gloss and mat surfaces rush past each other in joyous layers.
Painting is an integral part of life for Emma, who visits her studio numerous times a week to apply new layers of paint. ‘Every colour is a layer and I let it sit and dry and then I’ll re-engage with it later. I often don't spend much time in the studio in one visit. I’ll come in for an hour, I’ll paint and I will have touched every canvas once so I can't do anything else to it. I’m trying to be more free with the marks and introduce some looser brush strokes,’ Emma says of the process.
When you get up close to the paintings you can see how many layers, textures and transparencies are at play. The experimentation, looseness and the motion of the body making the mark can be seen on the canvas.
The colour and energy of these works are infectious and reflect Emma’s approach to making. ‘I do think about my paintings all the time, painting is always on my mind’.
See more of Emma’s work on her website.
Thanks for joining me on this studio visit! I hope to make this a regular series. Feel free to subscribe to Shout Out Arts to join me at the next one.
Cheers, Julia