Emma Cownie

Joined Artfinder: May 2013

Artworks for sale: 1003

(273)

United Kingdom

Updates from Emma Cownie's studio

  • Getting from here to there....

    Getting from here to there....

    From the mixing of oil colours on the pallette to the painting on the canvas. It always amazes me how a painting is born from these swirling colours on a pallette. How the colours become a whole imagined world. From chaos to order.

    15 October 2015
    Keeping the Colours Clean

    Keeping the Colours Clean

    A part of my style is trying to paint brilliant colours which I achieve via careful mixing of colours and by "keeping my artist pallete clean". This means I frequently wipe all the residual paint of the pallete, and scrub the pallet clean so that the colours are not muddy but kept clean. This reflects in the strength of colour on the canvas. I also use linen canvas instead of white cotton canvas as it seems to produce much richer colours too.

    24 September 2015
    A Moment's Deliberation

    A Moment's Deliberation

    A moments deliberation in the midst of creative process to see if various parts are hanging together, before deciding which part needs painting next. Paintings sometimes can appear as enormous puzzles in attempting to create a moment, a sense of now, of lasting immediacy. When I paint I try to piece together different parts of the whole, painting what I see intuitively, in different sections of the canvas, trusting that the whole thing will pull together as I progress.

    24 September 2015
    The Finishing Touches...

    The Finishing Touches...

    Here I am applying the finishing touches to my oil painting "Spring Coloured Wood". With these larger paintings, this one is 92 x 73cm, I find I need to prop the canvas on an additional wooden block to raise the canvas up a bit so that I do not have to stoop down too low to paint. It is one of those tips, things one learns, along the way.

    22 September 2015
    The Coolest Certificate of Authenticity!

    The Coolest Certificate of Authenticity!

    When a lovely artlover buys one of my oil paintings they will also receive this lovely printed certificate of authenticity with a miniature Giclee print of the painting they have just bought embedded. This will be printed on my own professional Canon printer. How cool is that!? I love these!

    03 September 2015
    En Plein Air in the Black Mountains

    En Plein Air in the Black Mountains

    Just arrived back from a wonderfully relaxing holiday in the Black Mountains - a week of walking, climbing up hills and mountains, taking photographs, painting en plein air and painting sketching for later art work. Great to get away from it all if only to come back refreshed and loaded up with inspiration for future artwork. The Black Mountains is a major inspiration, alongside the Gower Peninsula, in my art work. I love the clear mountain light, the shadows it creates, casting its long dark fingers across rounded hills, through tree and hedgerows and deep into the ragged craggy furrows of the numerous glaciated mountain faces strewn throughout this area of the Brecon Beacons.

    16 August 2015
    Windswept Inspiration

    Windswept Inspiration

    Every weekend my husband and I explore and almost mine the beauty of Gower peninsula with it's amazing variety of beaches, woods, hills and valleys for inspiration for my next paintings. Increasingly I have used this peninsula to keep my artistic juices flowing. It is almost as if we are harvesting the beauty of Gower in some way and using it to create art before sharing this bounty with artlovers throughout the world. Different paintings of Gower adorn walls in the homes of artlovers on various continents. Our weekend walks are not just for our aesthetic enrichment but for others too it would seem. What a joy to share the beauty of this stunning peninsula, designated Britain's first Area of Outstanding Beauty.

    25 July 2015
    He Has Been Framed!

    He Has Been Framed!

    Here I am standing by one of my paintings "Autumn Aflame" which has just been reclaimed from a recent art exhibition in Cardiff. As you can see this painting has now been framed and recently added to my online shop with it's new lovely black frame. I think the frame really adds to the this painting. What do you think? "Autumn Aflame", 82 x 62 x 4 cm , framed, ready to hang. Wouldn't it look lovely on one of your walls?

    04 May 2015
    Transforming an Art Studio into an Art Gallery

    Transforming an Art Studio into an Art Gallery

    Transforming an art studio into an art gallery – I have recently put some curtains for privacy and a few picture hanging rails onto the white walls of my art studio and it has really transformed it from a studio into somewhere where one can view art, serving as a private viewing space for artlovers to have a look at my paintings in “the flesh”. Having this viewing space is designed to help artlovers make that final decision about buying my artwork. I have sold dozens of pieces of artwork this way and really enjoy meeting artlovers who like my artwork. It also helps some artlovers to meet me and to get to know who they will be buying art from. It all adds to the enriching experience of buying art. Artlovers also often like to hear about the inspiration behind certain paintings and this brings the artwork to life. Although my paintings are professionally photographed some artlovers simply like to see the paintings in front of their very eyes. Also artlovers can say, in advance, what paintings, in particular, they would like “hung” or displayed for them to have a closer look at and they will be hung on the white walls ready for them to view. They can do this in the afternoon or the evening as the tracking lights enable viewing in the evening too.

    22 April 2015
    Creating a Timeless Moment.

    Creating a Timeless Moment.

    "A lot of intense time goes into creating a timeless moment. " Artlovers have often commented that they feel they are in my paintings or in the moment the painting depicts, that they are experiencing it and not just viewing it. Much time and preparation goes into creating this experience of now, of living this moment. Paintings sometimes can appear as enormous puzzles in attempting to create a moment, a sense of now, of lasting immediacy, of transporting the viewer to a moment, not just a scene or a particular subject matter. This is especially true of my refractionist paintings which seek to break down light into blocks of colour. After sketching out the terrain, I then piece together different parts of the whole, painting what I see intuitively, in different sections of the canvas, trusting that the whole thing will pull together as I progress. That I am somehow building up a layers towards reaching a sense immediacy. My paintings often have their greatest impact when viewed from a distance. I like to work quickly, sketching outlines in paint, then tackling most interesting and often brightest parts of the painting first. I like to keep the paint light and work quickly as I can, excitedly trying to solve the puzzle in as quick a time as possible, otherwise the moment can be gone. Never to be reclaimed. This is why I try to avoid reworking or overpainting as I feel it is trying to paint something that has happened and is gone. If the painting does not work quickly it usually means it will not work. A painting is of a certain time period and exists no where else. I may use my intellect to work out how to paint a painting but it is all in serving the purpose of immediacy, of feeling that one is in the moment. It is creating and in creating, expressing, a moment out of paint if you like, an eternal moment from a temporal activity. I prepare and plan but it is the creative spirit which somehow holds all elements together, suspended in possibility. This is what makes art so exciting, invigorating and tantalizing. It is a transportation out of the world into order to create the new world expressed in a painting. It is a very intuitively guided pursuit, being driven and letting go in the same paradoxical moment. One hopefully is also in the moment when looking at my paintings because all the elements of successfully been orchestrated, blended into this sense of present. A lot of intense time goes into creating a timeless moment.

    13 April 2015
    North Facing Skylight

    North Facing Skylight

    Although Spring has sprung I am still painting in my attic studio, too cold to be in the outside cabin studio. My skylight is north facing which is the best light for painting as one gets a good constant light all day. In the evening I supplant whatever existing day light there is by switching on the "day lights" seen in this photo so that I can get a few more hours work in the evening. I do however prefer to paint in the day and usually use evening for prep work or to outline the painting to be painted the next day. I like to leave a painting primed for painting the next day as I am a morning person and like to get stuck in early as possible in the morning, usually around 6.30am.

    31 March 2015

    My Ilston Inspiration

    Glorious Gower My present series of paintings which include a number of recently sold paintings are all of and inspired by Ilston Cwm a rural woodland in Gower Pensinsula. Gower was the first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK in the 1950s and is a major influence on my artwork. I love visiting this area, every weekend to walk my dogs and take photographs of the area. I like doing this especially in Winter when the rich Winter light catches the mossy barks of tress and illuminates the background behind the leafless trees with pinky purples and silvery greys. I find winter with it's seeming desolation much more colourful than other times of the year. The light is more brilliant, thicker and more concentrated than the light of summer. Less diffused. More clear. The fact the trees have no leaves allows one to look through and beyond and gives greater depth of perception and a richer array of overlapping colors . This seems to suit my refractionist style of breaking light down into colour components as these blocks of colour have a greater overlaying depth in winter. Winter light is also lower in the sky and this helps with a sharper more intense light falling on mossy tree barks. It is so great to get out of the city to soak up some countryside. It has become a vital part of life, escaping the every day concerns of life and work in Swansea to commune with nature, to get away from it all and to return with a bucket load of inspiration for paintings to be contemplated or painted in the following week or weeks. It is like getting filled up with inspiration, in fact. Replenished, reinvigorated. I find Gower a very moving place, inspiring. There is something tangibly uplifting about this peninsula. A special energy, or spirit to the place, a Nature Cathedral. There is a presence that inspires one and lifts the soul towards creativity, towards play. I am blessed to have such an inspiring place only ten-fifteen minutes away.

    26 March 2015