Emily Powell - The Birds & Me

Emily’s new collection explores her daily relationship with birds, which she describes as occupying “that place between reality and dream world”, in the context of her daily walks with her new baby. As an artist she is known for creating bold and brilliantly coloured still lifes, grand floral depictions and images of ethereal flying wildlife. Colour and joy are central to her work, and are the defining aspects that recently saw her invited to paint the entrance of London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Inspired by the natural world and the joy of life all around her, Emily paints in an intuitive and immediate way, applying layering upon layer of rainbow of colours onto huge canvases using brushes, her hands, and even mops, rags, brooms and old T shirts from around the studio. Flying animals are a key motif in her work, representing what she describes as things “that can’t be seen with the eye”, specifically positivity and hope, and the power and potential of an emotional connection between ourselves and our fellow creatures.

'This is an homage to the gentle seed eaters, who sit in the tree just by the sea and lift my mind from day to day. The sea birds bring perspective to each of my walks with the pram, offering something so light and bright I feel compelled to paint it.'  Emily Powell

Emily was raised in Liverpool and studied at Norwich School of Art, with a sabbatical at the Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. She now lives and works in Devon, and has exhibited with the Royal Society of Art, collaborated with MoMA, National Galleries of Scotland and The British Museum.