Emma Harrison is a British contemporary realist artist with a specialty in portraiture. Born in Derby, England, she has been drawing and painting since childhood, after which she studied at Leeds Arts University before moving to the Gold Coast, Australia.
Emma’s paintings focus on capturing small details and subtleties, with carefully placed brushstrokes ensuring that each finished piece carries the elegance of a painting and the accuracy of a photograph. These oil paintings are traditionally painted with careful depictions of light and hue, and a muted yet clean colour palette.
Emma’s paintings aim to find moments of stillness in a chaotic world, whether in portraits, figurative pieces or still-life compositions.
“I think there’s something so wonderful about painting purely for the love of painting. Through my work, I’m not aiming to create controversy, to make challenging statements or to evoke inner or outer conflict - my personal aim is just for my work to give the viewer the same sense of calm I experience when I’m painting. To have something to look at and feel peaceful, introspective or warmly nostalgic.
I have a tendency of getting swept up in each piece and working instinctively, painting them one at a time rather than on several projects simultaneously. I’ve always felt my mind to be a fast-moving and chaotic place, so my art is a way for me to organise the chaos. It’s akin to a meditative practice that allows me to live fully in the moment, and due to this I feel naturally drawn to images that have a certain feeling of stillness.”