EMILY FEAVER - ARTIST AND PRINTMAKER

My work is observed directly from life in oils and watercolour. My linocuts were once a sideline but have muscled in over the years.

From grey-blue beginnings in London, my paintings have progressed via the lush claustrophobia of a village near Farnham to the exposed, chalky light of a remote field in Hampshire.

I now live and work from a self-built studio within earshot of The Watercress Line, painting the snow as it collects on a fallen tree, the surrounding fields, trees and sky; the derelict out-buildings, and piles of wood and scrap metal.

When the vagaries of the British weather drive me indoors, I paint still lives. These dwell on empty chairs, discarded clothes, shoes, books and gardening gloves ; inanimate objects charged with the presence of absent owners. Or, they can be inspired by my collection of old china plates and cups. I love the subtle, reflective, patterned surfaces of these energetic vessels as they interact with the beautiful, perishable lives of fish, fruit and wild flowers. In recent work, scraps of salvaged wallpaper with birds, boats and fishermen, add a whimsical dimension. I paint portraits when sitters are willing and self portraits when they are not.

I fill my sketchbooks with people and places; Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria, Northumberland, France, Italy and Greece. These reappear in my linocut prints, edited and composed like poems. Recent prints range from small birds and insects to cyclists and complex, large-scale repeat pattern images.

August 2015