Emily Ball offers solo art show in Shoreham

Emily said: “I am continually exploring how I can respond, in paint, to my everyday experiences in a way that goes beyond copying what I see. I always want my paintings to have an intensity and a sensory quality to them.”

Emily’s Swimming Pool paintings were inspired by watching her young children learn to swim. She quickly became captivated by the interaction between the figures and the water surrounding them. Made over five years, she sought to create her own painterly language that meaningfully captured the essential qualities of this subject: “The resulting paintings have an ambition and weight to them. Whilst the subject is undoubtedly joyous, with colours popping and shimmering on the canvas, the paintings themselves are anything but lightweight.”

Painting for 30 years and teaching for 25, Emily works mainly in oils, on canvas and paper: “I love this medium for its immense versatility, sumptuous colour and consistency, together with its forgiving and tactile qualities.”

She says she is open to all the possibilities that paint offers and strives to develop a vocabulary for colour, mark and movement that is uniquely personal to her and characteristic of her chosen subject.

Spokeswoman Jane Nash said: “Swim, Ripple, Dive is an exhibition that charts the development of this body of work. The series consists of two 12ft paintings, four 8ft x 4ft paintings, together with lots of smaller work (drawings and paintings) – both on canvas and on paper. The Swimming Pool Paintings are testament to Emily’s passion for paint and what she can coax from it. Initially, figures appear within the buoyancy of water; parts of the bodies emerge from time to time, breaking the surface before being enveloped once more. As the paintings developed, the brief expanded to include not only the swimming figures, but also the effect they had on water.

“Throughout her career, Emily has created paintings that are about the nowness of our everyday lives in a way that is beautiful and tough. Precious moments are shown to us in ways that are new, vital and uncliched. As an open and generous painter, Emily welcomes the viewer into her world. The personal realm of her home life, being a mother and of her children growing up, is inextricably linked to her professional roles of artist, writer and teacher. The passion, drive, determination and commitment that she gives her teaching are an extension of her own uncompromising approach to painting. She has always been determined to forge her own path and stay true to her own painting philosophy, having single-handedly grown her business from a small scale venture to a full-time thriving art school.”