I’ve been working on a new collection since the new year, to say its been all consuming is an understatement. I have approached this latest series in a very different way. Instead of sourcing inspiration from the land or sky I’ve turned inward to paint from my own emotions and how a landscape can play on the mind and have a feeling- not just a view. How I felt when I walked over the fields near my home in the cold and misty mornings. I felt many emotions as I walked each day, calm, melancholy, free…
I spent the first five years of my life growing up in a caravan with both my parents, I had freedom. Freedom is and will always be the most important thing to me. I had sheer joy! I would ride and create, life was good. It’s when you grow up that life gets tricky…
By my early twenties I was a single mother of two and fearlessly going at life, or was that for dear life. I was successful! I had a business and my own home and I could look after my own (although not always easy), but underneath, I had been broken. One can forgive but the scars that are left behind mean you never forget. However, scars can give you strength, they can make you. Scars are the underpainting- the crucial part!
Beautiful – messy – complex – free – spirited – vulnerable – mercurial
I’m older, most definitely wise. Still successful and highly spirited. I find joy in the most simple of things… trees barely visible through the fog on a sunny morning in winter, a fire lit and a cup of tea, time spent in my studio just looking at work, my daughters having a good chat in the kitchen- the fits of laughter.
I’ve been enjoying the process of painting with emotions from within, from picking back over my life as I walk through the fields, discovering my own sense of depth…
Now I just need to name this latest collection.
If you’d like to see more of my work you can catch up with me regularly by visiting www.emmalouiseconnolly.art
Emma Connolly 