Emma Burnett

Joined Artfinder: Feb. 2021

Artworks for sale: 5

United Kingdom

Updates from Emma Burnett's studio

  • Some of the influences on my flower paintings

    A short video on some of the influences that go into my flower paintings

    13 February 2021

    The flower paintings start with growing the flowers

    The garden at Bradness did not exist when we first moved here, it was simply a field with a stream running along the bottom. The lower area was boggy and prone to flooding and so the farm next door kindly dug the pond. Almost instantly wildlife starts to come, it is a magical process. My partner Michael Cruickshank is a landscape painter and very good with the ebb and flow of the garden and is responsible for creating that. I love the flowers and grow lots to cut and bring indoors and also to paint outside. I have been a keen and active environmentalist for many years and so we very much plant for wildlife rather than pristine perfection. Our local village, Barcombe, is very active in preserving wildlife, nightingales and hedgerows. The slightly chaotic style is very much my own and something that I try to achieve in the garden and in my paintings. We do the garden ourselves but many plants have been donated by friends who are keen gardeners.

    13 February 2021
    My art studio

    My art studio

    We live in a 14th century farmhouse. The studio was converted from 16th century outbuildings and looks out over the fields and garden.

    13 February 2021
    Paints, brushes and palette

    Paints, brushes and palette

    I mainly work in oil paints and mainly use Michael Harding paints. The quality of oil paint is very important and the best paints use the best pigments and produce the best colours. I teach Colour Mixing and Theory and understanding how to mix any colour I want to is a joy. Teaching a subject makes me think it through differently and is actually really beneficial. It clarifies aspects in my mind. Colour is the most wonderful subject to study. The more I know, the more I know I don't know and the more interesting it gets. When I am painting, certain combinations make my heart beat a bit faster. I also paint abstracts and here colour and colour balance are paramount in making a painting work so it is a great help in my thought processes. I have spent a lot of time studying art and the great artists and over time they have opened my eyes to the colours around us. Landscape painter Fred Cuming RA showed me the soft greens in the sky and Pierre Bonnard the mauves in the sky. Seeing more in what I see, I try to find my own voice in expressing that in my paintings. "Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think. But thousands of people can think for one who can see" John Ruskin, victoria art critic

    13 February 2021
    Finding the colours

    Finding the colours

    When you first start to paint, the tendency is to see one colour; a pink flower or a green leaf. As time progresses and understanding increases you see how colours change dramatically with the effect of light and shade and the influence of the colours around. This is a joy in painting.

    13 February 2021
    The inside outside garden

    The inside outside garden

    We created the garden so it is a real inside outside place and it lifts my spirits all the time.

    13 February 2021

    A chat about watercolour painting materials part 2

    13 February 2021

    A chat about watercolour painting materials part 1

    13 February 2021
    My little friend

    My little friend

    We live an outside life and I paint outside in the garden whenever possible. Because we work at home, we try to eat outside whenever we can, even in winter. This little robin comes to the table as soon as we sit down.

    13 February 2021