Artist

​​Derived from a sense of place, my practice has developed through an in-depth exploration of the history, architecture and associated objects in areas with which I have a personal connection. 

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Through drawing, painting and printmaking, I develop open narratives about these places by considering individual, collective and social memories. I am interested in the connections between these memories, the historic architecture and its relationship to the surrounding landscape.

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Notions of deep mapping and psychogeography are integral methodologies within my research which have also allowed me to develop a deeper and new found awareness for these places. Literature has also played a significant role in informing my practice, in particular, the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson and novels by George Perec which draw attention to the ordinary and the insignificant. 

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The process of making is also important; with repeated patterns, endurance and erasure being a way of challenging my drawings and paintings. Time being a space for repetition; I regularly visit places to enhance my understanding of them. Ideas begin on location through sketchbook drawings which then expand into larger media through graphite and charcoal or smaller scale mixed media paintings. Within the language of psychogeography, a drawn realism echoes through the work, emphasising the uncanny nature of everyday objects and architecture. I have developed my own language of places, using fragmentation, absence and isolation as a way of reflecting memories.

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I am interested in the value of art in education and how we can involve the public and communities with art in an accessible way. I engage in contemporary art; visiting and researching exhibitions across the world and actively contributing to the creative arts. As Artist in Residence with George Watson's College, I continue to develop my practice in an open studio environment.

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Photographs by Emily Shade