My current work has the theme of ‘Longing and Sweet Sadness’. This focus began in 2021 but really galvanised and gathered momentum after the death of my father last Autumn, 2022. I drew and painted in the woods at the back of my parents house. This is where I played as a child, making camps and exploring. It is where I made huge paintings for my degree show after the hurricane of 1987, when I was in my early twenties. It is the place where my children played, camped and went on bluebell walks every year when they were small. It is where I walk now when I visit my 91 year old mum.
The things that I notice and love now are laden with my memories of all of these times. As I paint and draw I am not searching to paint the view but instead exploring a language in paint that could give visual metaphors for the beauty, impermanence and rawness of Nature. I am reminded that all my senses are vital to inform my response; the movement of my body as I walk, the smell and feel of the earth under my feet. The sound of birdsong, the discomfort of working outside, the quiet space for reverie. I cluster marks, distress, mop, edit, knot, caress and balance between order and chaos in each painting. Each time it brings my attention to the particular; gentle paper clatter of leaves falling, piercing slats of amber light; luminous, looming, dimming, fading, draining away. The sap falling and rising, sleeping and waking; revealing the bare bones of the woodland weave.
Emily Ball June 2023
