Pics from Waiheke Art Gallery exhibition | Runs until Dec 12

New Works – What lies beneath

Artist Emma Wright’s work embraces the apparent randomness of life and celebrates the beauty of ‘the big picture’. Her love of the environment, although not explicitly depicted, is in every brush-stroke. She believes “nature is the absolute basis of, and informs, everything we are.” While Wright doesn’t profess to have any of the answers, painting affords her the opportunity to ponder the larger questions and give her subconscious free reign to create.

Wright’s works begin with words – barely visible and completely illegible in the finished pieces – whatever is in her head at the time. The text might be as inane as a few lines borrowed from Dr Seuss, or as fundamental as “I am”. Layer upon layer of different materials then make their way onto the canvas; builders’ plaster, smaller pieces of canvas, house paint and translucent acrylic. Together they form luscious, abstract ridges, drips and shapes which she describes as “representing all that life throws at us; messy, inconvenient and unpredictable.”

Wright uses geometric shapes to challenge how so often we assume we know the full picture, when in fact we may know only a fraction of it. In her works, the viewer automatically ‘sees’ a full circle when what is off the canvas could actually take an infinite number of forms. We readily assume we know what makes us tick, how life works, and the world go around, but the reality is that life rarely goes as planned. Wright explains, “It always amazes me that I keep thinking the unpredictable will cease. My paintings are a reminder that that’s not the case.”

Significantly, this latest series of works began when Wright unexpectedly (but very happily) fell pregnant with her second child. She found herself drawn to her studio where the paint flowed with an ease she hadn’t experienced for some time. She felt propelled by a new momentum and an energy which is palpable in the vibrant canvases. Their brushstrokes are strong and certain, their dripping paint is calm and meditative and their palate is joyous in its lolly-box hues. Wright has said, “I like to imagine my life dipped in sunlight, rolled in irreverence and sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. My paintings offer this view of life as a rich context for living.”

Coating each composition is a generous, almost decadent, layer of lacquer. You only have to stand in front of them to see your reflection clearly in their glossy surfaces. Yet it is only once you decide to look past yourself that you see what lies beneath.

New works will be on show at the Waiheke Community Art Gallery from Nov 18.