Portrait of Iris Painting

Emma (1980) is an independent artist currently based in Amsterdam where she works  as a freelance cooking- and art teacher in primary schools. She stays in Barcelona for a couple of months every year to withdraw from the day-to-day and paint.  Emma started painting in 2019. At that time she was living and working in Barcelona.  She took classes at Studio Subide, run by the artist Monica Subide. During these classes Emma first got introduced to portrait painting with oil.  Most of her work still feature the human figure, but animals and or plants may also be present to create whimsical, dreamy scenes.  Emma gets her inspiration mostly from photography which she started practising as a child. She took pictures of everyone and everything.  When selecting a picture for a painting, either her own or one found online, she focuses on facial expression, mainly trough the eyes. Composition and perspective are also important.  Another source of inspiration is life drawing sessions. Emma joins them regularly to keep up her drawing skills. During these drawing sessions Emma tries not only to capture the models pose, but also the emotion generated by the pose. As her skills evolve, Emma likes to experiment new ways, like working with an art model to create  pictures where poses, expression, light and outfits are carefully selected on forehand.  Emma works mainly on paper and wood.