In this special episode we are joined by British painter Emily Ponsonby to explore the importance, the relevance, the power of place - here you work, where you exhibit, where you travel, where your work finds home.
Before we go any further, if you aren’t familiar with her work I really would encourage you to take a moment to look her up here so that you can have her work in your mind’s eye.
The work of Emily Ponsonby is an invitation. It is an invitation to remain still. It is something revealed and something hidden. It is onion layers making your eyes sting, leaving the board littered with skins both crisp and yielding. Once seen, these captures of togetherness remain. I want to pod peas and hear the conversation. I want to be in the picture not stood in front of it, an outsider to its beeswax scrapings. 'Place' sings from the canvas and from Emily’s story.
It would be easy to focus on the life of an artist as one about looking and telling stories and truths and one of canvas and paint and technique. We could happily, and fruitfully, spend our time wondering how Emily elicits life from the page but, for me, the commercial side creeps in. Working with galleries, applying for residencies, pricing your work. It all has a part to play. I have known Emily for some time and have watched her navigate both the work itself and the commercial side of things with energy and honesty, with courage and with trepidation. We all have a great deal to learn from her.
And so, let’s explore the settings within her work, her studio space, her travel and explorations, where her work ends up and the importance of her latest exhibition, A Warm Life Through Butter at Gillian Jason Gallery.
Emily Ponsonby
Gillian Jason Gallery
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