Emma Fisher Somerset, United Kingdom
I am a painter based in Bath and have been painting for over 30 years.
Painting is my coping mechanism; it is how I process and digest my lived experience, it is a quiet outpouring of emotion. I say ‘quiet’ as the paintings are not explicitly dealing with narratives that are descriptive or easily read. The paintings move through imagined spaces, inspired by the natural environment but evoking an otherworldly feel, these places exist but they do not exist. I paint with oil paint on canvas and enjoy working on a large scale. The use of colour and abstract brush work help to locate the image in the familiar whilst also alluding to an interpretation of a place. I want them to be undeniably painting, but I aim to create an theatrical visual reality enabling the drama to play out in the imagery. Objects and plant forms are visual props for the narrative that drives the image making, whilst never disclosed, it is suggested or hinted at through carefully considered titles. The domestic feel to my work and the choice of objects comes directly from my environment and often have a personal resonance with a particular time, place or memory. Balancing the complexities of everyday life and creative practice is one of the recurring themes within my work. This means that whilst it speaks to a personal narrative the themes that occur also relate to the wider experiences of the human condition; the mundanity of life, punctuated by the highs and lows of sorrow or joy or perhaps throwing a spotlight on those moments that go by unnoticed, that are unremarkable but exist in all of our lives.
