emilyblandstudio

Paintings always everywhere Eyes open! (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/Crpw0wGog-_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Meet the artist 👩‍🎨 Ok here I am, reintroducing myself for anyone new here! 
Pic 1 — Taken last year with painting Untitled 573 from my 2021 collection, which now lives happily with a collector in London. Pic 2 –  One of the very first sketches related to my new body of work, completed April 2022 while in the South of France for a month. Pic 3 – View of my studio table earlier this year as I was deep in oil painting experiments, this painting ended up a disaster and got put in the bin along with 20+ others.
 About me? Well I’m British-French, grew up in coastal Lancashire, North West England. Studied Fine Art Painting at @mcrschart and then moved to Berlin in 2012.
 I’m currently over a year into a project that is very different for me – attempting to depict an object that is based in reality. My starting point is a recurring thought that I have had since I was a child, of an object moving though space in a nonsensical way. The object is a chair 🪑, describing to you what happens to the chair with words doesn’t really make sense to me, the point is for me to eventually show you through painting.
 What is the purpose of this recurring thought? Why does it come to me? Where does it come from? – I see it as a comfort thing, it’s where my mind wonders when I feel safe and relaxed, the image or action doesn’t make physical sense but it is somehow grounding. There is a relentless repetitive nature to the action that takes place, it’s always the same, I can rely on it, it replays like a loop.

I have other recurring thoughts like this, but the chair one is the most prominent, vivid one and certainly the most interesting to paint. 
So that’s where I’m at, feel free to ask questions in the comments ✨✨✨✨ (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrnIF4nojb_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

chartreuse criss cross oh the relief! my oil palette is coming together, now I can begin to focus my attention back to the content and concept work in progress, always 🍐🪲🌞 (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CriAjzKoCbY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Work in progress… Wanna keep this one loose and fresh. So far heading in the right direction 😸 🔹60x50cm, oil on canvas (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrgOW-domnh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

oil paint detail 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrgAQQtIKVZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Balcony sketching 🖍️ This is my favourite format and style of sketchbook that I have ever owned…
it’s a teeny A6 @royaltalens Art Creation sketchbook in 140 g/m² natural white, with thread stitch binding and elastic strap to keep it closed. In the past, I was not one of those artists working a ton in sketchbooks, the urge kinda went in phases for me. When working a lot on a larger scale, I didn’t like to work in sketchbooks alongside. I am also not one to copy a small sketch onto a large-scale canvas; this defeats the entire point of working intuitively (my preferred working process) and I find it mind-numbingly boring to copy/ repeat my work. An example of a phase where I enjoyed using a sketchbook was last year when I was in Narbonne for a month. I used an A5 spiral sketchbook and it was where I put down all my visual thoughts. Since I didn’t have a studio there, this was essential, and I really got into it. The pages from that sketchbook became hugely important for my new body of work, they are the foundations of the development of the overall idea. However, it wasn’t something I continued after my trip, because once back at my studio in Berlin I found the A5 format too large to carry round and I moved on to larger paper and canvas anyway. I only used the sketchbook to look back at for reference. This year things changed; in my efforts to find my preferred oil painting palette, I dug out this little A6 sketchbook from the pile of random art supplies I buy, and began to use it as a ‘safe space’ (😂) when my canvas works and oil painting attempts were going so terribly. I used it to remind myself that I do understand colour and that I was not loosing the knowledge or techniques I spent my whole artistic career developing. Dramatic, I know.

Anyway, it stuck, this little A6 treasure comes everywhere with me. It also contains random other stuff like to-do lists/ notes… I have not been precious about it and I think this is important for me (see @frannerd ugly sketchbook). I have been sketching a lot more and see this as more of an ongoing thing rather than using it in phases like I used to. So I think I’m a sketchbook person now, and I LOVE IT!!!! (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/Crawzg7onag/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Berlin palette, April 2023 🌀🍋🌪️ https://www.instagram.com/p/CrJTZ1xo5mR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Still working with oils, perseverance is paying off, don’t yet have finished pieces but finally understanding this language again 👩‍🎨 (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrIiNHII1oR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

In progress — reworking a previously abandoned painting ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ #emilyblandstudio #abstraction #abstractpainter #studiosid #abstractpainting #paintersgonnapaint (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqdZi7XqSR5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Colour inspo, shoutout to the laundry 🧺 #emilyblandstudio #abstraction #paintspiration https://www.instagram.com/p/CqNOc7VIHQ3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

✨✨✨✨ tlv❣️march 2023 🔹lots of sketches and vivid colours to translate to paintings 🔹thinking also about scale, I started sizing and priming some some smaller canvases before I left but am now feeling an urge to go bigger 🔹missing painting but glad to have my little box of pencil crayons with me #abstractpainter #sketchbook #emilyblandstudio (at Tel Aviv, Israel) https://www.instagram.com/p/CprS2SJIlme/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

🖍 beach day, collected some sketches to take back to the studio. sun and sea always a great source of inspiration for me. also just the warmth helps, i get very tense in the dark winter months in berlin- body always cold despite living in heattech undergarments, city covered by constant heavy cloud for 5 months, it takes its toll this trip will be a good reset and should help me with my current colour-related struggles with my oil paintings #emilyblandstudio #abstractsketchbook #abstraction #paintspiration #beachsketch (at Tel Aviv, Israel) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpcTQIxoF8N/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Experimenting, still figuring out my colour palette in oils, slowly getting there #emilybland #abstractpainter #studiosid #abstraction #paintersgonnapaint (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpS-NAVMfoa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

After much research and experimentation throughout most of last year, I’m now beginning to actually paint this new body of work. My aim is to depict a recurring thought that I’ve had since I was a child, of an object moving through space in an impossible nonsensical way. I expect a bit of a struggle with the first few paintings as I’m still re-learning how to work with oil paints. The difference with oil paint as a physical material compared to acrylic is not the issue- I’ve been working hard to re-learn this… different grounds, mediums, tools, rules, textures… the results are already totally worth the effort: beautiful shiny buttery oil paint, a complete joy to paint with. Day and night difference compared to acrylics, definitely prefer oils. The part that is still giving me trouble is colour placement, it’s like acrylic colours (with vivid neons and generally wider choice) are the language I’ve been using to describe my ideas for the last 8 years, and oil colour shades/options are just a different language that I’m not yet 100% comfortable with. At least I know I was once comfortable with it, since I started out an an oil painter originally… so I just have to paint so much with oils that it jogs my memory. Colour and colour placement play an integral role in my work, so it has to be just right. Definitely feeling that as a pressure! Only one thing for it though— practice! I’ll only understand it further and feel comfortable using this oil-colour-language if I push through and paint. The thinking phase is over, now it’s time for action. Rinse repeat, paint paint paint 👩‍🎨 #emilyblandstudio #emilybland #abstractpainter #paintersgonnapaint #oilpainting #studiosid (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co2PHaoomTP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=