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copy_The Space to Paint

copy_The Space to Paint
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Emily Ball at Seawhite

Contemporary Drawing and Painting Courses

Emily's Love of the Seawhite STudio



Image: Study for 'Longing and Sweet Sadness' WIP Painting, Emily Ball: Emily working in the studio


Dear Visitor
 
 When the studio closed its doors in  March 2020 the space was left silent and unused, but after a few months she returned to deliver tutorials and record content for her online programme of courses.  Initially, it was strange not to share the space with students and to feel the familiar vibrant buzz of the studio in full flow, but gradually Emily began to enjoy working in the space by herself.  It’s wonderful light, and generous size enabled her practice to take up space – physically and mentally- and for her to become immersed in her work.
 
In this newsletter, Emily reflects on the benefits of working in the Seawhite Studio, shares her thoughts on her current body of work and invites you to an Open Studio Event; a chance  to catch up with paint and cake, and to remind yourself why the Seawhite Studio is such a great place to be!



Image: Longing and Sweet Sadness, March 2022, Emily Ball
 
Welcome Back!  Open Studio Event  May 31st – June 2nd 9 – 4 each day. 
 

Image: the Seawhite Studio; ready to welcome you back
 
I would like to invite you to come and visit my studio and see my work in progress. Have a cup of tea and a slice of cake with me. Come and talk to me about you having been doing too - It has been too long.
 
This spring Luke and I will be busy refurbishing the studio - installing higher screens and refreshing different areas to celebrate the fantastic space and light in anticipation for our exciting programme of courses for the Autumn and Winter 2022/2023. 
 
Put the date in your diary and let me know what flavour cake you would like me to make!

 
 
Emily’s thoughts on working in the Seawhite Studio
 

Image: Emily working in the Studio: Works-in-progress and studies on the wall: Longing  and Sweet Sadness Painting
 
Over the last two years I have enjoyed spreading out, greedily using the huge studio space. By doing so I am celebrating that I am first and foremost a painter. I am able to put up so many studies and canvases to look at and work on. I love the seriousness and the commitment of this. The studio is a generous, safe space where I have some serious creative playtime. I am undisturbed when I work here; the studio is used for painting and nothing else.   Moving the emphasis back to my painting is exciting and it has given me a real inner strength and focus.
 

Image: A corner of Emily’s studio: Mop at the ready!
 
Longing and Sweet Sadness
 

Image:  ‘Longing and Sweet Sadness’ March 2022, Emily Ball
 
My latest body of drawings and paintings has a working title of ‘Longing and Sweet Sadness’. It began last Autumn as I drew and painted in the woods at the back of my parents house. This is where I played as a child, making camps and exploring. It is where I made huge paintings for my degree show after the hurricane of 1987, when I was in my early twenties. It is the place where my children played, camped and went on bluebell walks every year when they were small. It is where I walk now when I visit my mum, where we go mushroom hunting and gather kindling.
 

Image: Emily in 1988 making huge paintings in the woods next to her parents house.
 
The things that I notice and love now are laden with my memories of all of these times. As I paint and draw I am not searching to paint the view but instead exploring a visual language that could give metaphors for moss and its sponginess under my feet. Phrases of marks that draw attention to the gentle, erratic, paper clatter of leaves falling. Piercing slats of amber light; luminous, looming, dimming, fading, draining away. The sap falling and rising, sleeping and waking; revealing the bare bones of the woodland weave. Then as the trees and undergrowth reclothe my gaze rises and falls, following the sounds of bird song and tempting me into the plum soft shadows and hidden spaces. 
 
 
Image: ‘Longing and Sweet Sadness’, Oil on Arches paper, Emily Ball

To find out more about Emily's work:
Visit her website: www.emilyball.net
Follow her on Instagram: @emilyballpainting



Image: colour studies: painting and drawing in the woods, October 2021, Emily Ball
 

www.emilyballatseawhite.co.uk | contact  |

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