Emma Williams – portfolio

Contact the artist

https://www.naturallearningoxford.co.uk/
07881 917252
info[at]naturallearningoxford.co.uk

Exhibition information

Emma’s love for science and history is clear in her art in which she brings together varying strands of interest, composing her artworks from a variety of layers and elements with an eye for colour, surface pattern and design.

“Artists are like magpies, collecting shiny bits of information, and visual clues to hoard for reuse later.”

She harvests parts of scientific diagrams or patterns from the natural world as well as diagrams and images of prehistoric sites of which she is a keen visitor.

As a teenager she remembers visiting the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock, Wiltshire. Fox Talbot was a scientist and a photographic pioneer. Alongside his work were examples of the cyanotype process, discovered by mathematician and astronomer John Herschel in the 1840s. The cyanotype process creates a striking and easily recognisable image in Prussian blue and white. It is this early photographic technique that Emma decided to investigate in 2020 and has been experimenting with ever since.

These cyanotypes are usually used as the base and the starting point for most of her art. To this she curates layers of inks, salts, chalk, pen and metallic paints, creating an image from multiple layers, just as the environment around us is made from layers of history, science and human engagement.

Artist information

Emma was lucky enough to grow up in rural Devon, equidistant between moorland and coast. Weekends were spent visiting stone rows, circles and standing stones and holidays were spent on the south coast, beach combing and pebble collecting. During her degree in Fine Art she specialised in collaborative, community projects and public art which led naturally to a role as an Education Officer at Oxford Botanic Garden. After many happy years amongst the beautiful biodiversity of the world she returned to her own art practice. She teaches for Oxfordshire Hospital Schools, the Earth Trust and Sunningwell School of Art. She enjoys working with children, families and adults with learning disabilities as well as getting involved with community projects. She is a member of Abingdon Artists but also finds some time to help out at Tamar Valley Vineyard, her family’s vineyard in Devon. She is a firm believer in drawing from direct observation, so you can often find her sketching in one of Oxford’s museums or whilst out and about with her family.