The Art Buyer are thrilled to have interviewed London-based artist Emma Chambers on her art practice. We discuss the origin of Emma’s love for colour and pattern, her textile background, and where her connection to nature stemmed from. The Art Buyer Gallery are pleased to be showing four original paintings by artist Emma Chambers in our Winter Collection.
Pictured: Hedgerow Jungle by Emma chambers
Pictured: Hedgerow Jungle by Emma Chambers
How have the arts featured in your upbringing; was there a strong creative focus around you growing up?
Both my parents were passionate about all the arts. They loved Opera and Ballet and the family home was full of contemporary art and sculpture. The furniture was a mixture of modern and antiques and everything was cherished for its design and beauty.
My mother went to Chelsea School of Art, after which she became a graphic designer before meeting my father. She is an immensely talented artist, sculpture, painter and ceramists in her own right and has always encouraged my passion for painting.
Have you had any formal training in the creative field, and if so, how has this informed your painting practice?
I did a foundation course in art at Middlesex. What an unbelievable year this was for me. It showed me how much I didn’t know and taught me there is no such thing as failure, just learning. During that year I found an affinity for shape, colour and pattern which led me to do degree in Fashion Textiles at Brighton. I had a natural ability to paint flowers so after finishing my degree I was asked to work at a design studio where I focused on floral designs.
The influence of a textile background is evident in my work today. I take great care when painting studies in the studio to place the plants in a way that has the right proportion and spacing. The negative space between the leaves is important. I think this discipline derives directly from designing pattern where emphasis was placed on layout. In pattern no one shape can stand out otherwise the pattern doesn’t work. Subconsciously this also happens in my paintings, sometimes all the plants appear to have equal importance allowing the eye to roam from leaf to leaf which is how I see it in nature. I think it’s impossible to separate nature and pattern. They are intertwined and entangled. When I am sitting in the landscape looking at the plants before me I see how their leaves repeat, how their stems so often bend the same way forming a row of lines, and how, like a pattern, the patch of nettles repeats itself beyond the borders of my canvas.
Talk us through the method of painting your lighter pieces, in contrast to your work with much darker surroundings and what draws you to each?
My intention is to portray plants with truth and accuracy. Mediums that are mixed with water i.e. watercolour, water mixable oils and egg tempera, give me the fluidity I need to paint plants the way I see them, with delicacy and translucency. A light surface is the optimum way to allow the light from the background to shine through and form the lightest part of the plant. I do not paint the spaces in-between the plants, instead I rely on the viewer to complete the picture with the white ground acting as the cohesive force, holding the painting together. Spring and summer landscapes are best portrayed with a white background as this lends a freshness and lightness to the painting.
I started working on darker backgrounds because I was often looking at scenes where the plants were growing from very dark places. Instead of adding dark to light backgrounds, which often became heavy or overworked, I experimented with working dark to light and painted a series of backgrounds in rich dark tones. Using egg tempera, the pigment sits on the surface of the dark grounds and doesn’t disappear. The plants I paint seem to emerge out of the ground into the light with a drama and glow giving them an almost magical quality. I have also used the dark grounds on some botanical studies. These are particularly good for small delicate flowers such as elderflowers and cow parsley whose white blossoms are hard to make stand out on a white ground.
We’d love to know the inspiration/source materials for your floral & natural imagery. Do you work from images, en plein air, or from memory?
My inspiration is from what I see when ever I am outside. I paint from life, either en plein air or from plants gathered and kept in buckets or jars in the studio. I cannot paint from imagination or from memory, this, to me is painting in the void. I am always on the search for some small area that would otherwise go unnoticed where I can explore and discover as I paint. Every year there is something new, even if I choose the same spot at the same time the plants will be growing differently. My source of material is never ending.
Process photo of ‘Hedgerow Jungle’ by Emma Chambers
Pictured: Process photo of ‘Hedgerow Jungle’ by Emma Chambers
Emma Chamber’s set-up for painting.
Pictured: Emma Chamber’s set-up for painting
Some of your pieces include small messages or notes; how did this idea come about, why do you include them?
The small notes are inspired by the work of Kurt Jackson who often writes across his paintings the things he sees or hears as he paints. When I am immersed in my surroundings Birdsong, the sound of leaves falling, a splash of water are all amplified. Often insects come to inspect the painting, leaving before I can paint them, so writing down what is happening, when it is happening has become a way for me to remember the day, it acts like a diary and a means to fully record what I am experiencing.
What do you love about the materials you use? From gouache, egg tempera, oils, what is it about these mediums that you enjoy working with?
Water colour is my go to medium. It is the medium I have most experience with. It is also the easiest to take en plein air, as it takes up the least space in my rucksack and on the ground. It is also the quickest, most effective way to record plants in their environment. This medium is impossible to, ‘rub out’, and doesn’t respond well to overworking so I love it for the spontaneity it produces and the mistakes that have to be embraced.
Water mixable oils have all the benefits of water colour but can be used on board and canvas. This allows me to work on large pieces especially if I use un stretched canvas which I can roll up when I walk to my chosen painting place.
Egg tempera is the latest medium I have been working with. It has all the glowing qualities of oil paint with non of the thickness. I can apply it on a dark ground where it doesn’t disappear but allows the paint to sit on top. If I use it thinly the paint recedes so is perfect for the foliage in the background. Incredible detail is possible and working from dark to light has given my work a new dimension. It is, however, difficult to use en plein air. The palaver of mixing up the paint from pigment adds an extra dimension to the challenge of working outside, it is also not easy to use when it is hot, as the egg cooks!
Your pieces are a true celebration of the natural world. Do you have any early memories that your fascination with nature stemmed from?
I was lucky enough to be bought up in both London and the countryside. We had an ancient thatched cottage in Wiltshire where we spent every weekend and every holiday. My sisters and I explored our surroundings, learning all the names of all the plants, and trees and crops, daring each other to suck on sloe berries, picking apples from orchards, and blackberries from hedgerows. I remember watching the grass on the verge as the sun shone through it making triangular patterns and longing to paint what I saw. My love for all things natural comes from my childhood life in the countryside. The curiosity and desire for discovery remains with me now.
View the Emma Chambers collection
Nothing to See Here, Brambles, egg tempera on board, 40 x 30 cm, £950
Pictured: Nothing to See Here, Brambles, egg tempera on board, 40 x 30 cm, £950
My Life in Art – Emma Chambers
First piece of art you bought?
The first painting I bought was a seascape by Albert Houthuesn who was a great uncle of my then partner, now husband. It is a small semi abstract painting of waves crashing on rocks. Somehow, where ever we have lived this painting always finds a wall to be hung on. It is a real gem.
Seascape by Albert Houthuesn
Pictured: Seascape by Albert Houthuesn
Favourite Artist?
I have chosen Kurt Jackson as my favourite artist for his passion for his subject; the energy he brings to his plein air painting; his ability to capture light; the way he works with mixed medium; his melting pot of mark making; and his unwavering devotion to conservation. He creates seascapes, landscapes and still lives that are sensitive, alive and beautiful. My other favourites would be Eric Ravillios, Gustave Glimt, Elizabeth Blackadder and Vincent Van Gogh.
If you could own any piece of art (even if you have to rob a bank or museum!), what would it be and why?
This was very difficult to decide upon, but given I could choose anything I have chosen, “Wheat Fields after the Rain”, by Vincent Van Gogh. Painted July 1890. I saw this painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2010 as part of the exhibition, The Real Van Gogh, The Artist and His Letters. The light and space and colour in this painting makes my heart sore, it says, ‘Glorious Summertime’. It would make me happy, always.
Vincent Van Gogh- Wheat Fields after the Rain The Plain of Auvers, 1890. Image Credit: Carnegie Museum of Art
Vincent Van Gogh- Wheat Fields after the Rain The Plain of Auvers, 1890. Image Credit: Carnegie Museum of Art
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