Kiss Painting

Emily Tull graduated from KIAD in 2000. Since then, she has exhibited internationally, regularly in London, and across Kent in group and solo shows. Recently winning a Kent Creative Award for Visual Art she has also been a finalist in the Winter Pride Art Awards (2015), and selected for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize and have been a contestant in Sky Art's Portrait Artist of the Year 2014. Inspiration comes from many sources including Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Curiosity Cabinets, ripped wallpaper, Egyptian tomb paintings and the Pre-Raphaelites. The work covers a range of subjects based upon everyday life and literature. Since 2011 I have used wildlife imagery to experiment with fabrics, predominately British species but I am also inspired by curiosity cabinet displays and my mother's bee collection. The actual sewing is quite a random act unless it is a face, where I start with the eye and work out from there. I will flit from colour to colour thread cross hatching, weaving the thread over and under until I am happy with the overall effect, I compare it to using colouring pencils. I am striving to close the gap to what is deemed 'craft' and what is art. Publications: 'Artist Profile: Emily Tull' – Textile Fibre Forum Magazine (issue 124 Dec 2016) 'Emily Tull' – Art Reveal Magazine (issue no 13 Feb 2016) 'Portraits In Thread' – Be Creative With Workbox (issue 153 Jan/Feb 2016) 'From Sketch To Stitch' – Stitch Magazine (issue 96 Aug – Sept 2015) 'A Portrait Artist of the Year: A Little Book of Portraits: Beyond the Canvas' (2014), Quadrille publishing LTD AWARDS: Visual Arts (non digital) – Kent Creative Awards 2017 First prize for 'I Am Here' – UCL 2015 Highly Commended for 'Fragile #2' – RBSA 2008 COMPETITIONS: Finalist, Emerald Winter Prize Art Award 2016 Shortlisted, Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize 2015 Regional Finalist, Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014. Sky Arts.