EMILY BALL Steep Climb, Heavy Air

Throughout 2021 going for a daily walk became an integral and important part of my life. I don’t think I have ever walked so much and I certainly have never explored the beautiful landscape around me more than I did then. I am very lucky to live close to the South Downs. From my front door I can walk to the top of the Downs in about 30 minutes (if I keep up a good pace and get out of breath up the steep bits!).

In Spring and Summer my long, sure-footed stride, and steady rhythm as I walked, created a meditative state that sharpened my senses. I was more acutely aware of the sweet, heavy scent of elderflower and the air laced with birdsong. The sometimes grey clouds hung heavy above the top of the hills and sometimes floated and sailed across the valley below. The crumbling white chalk was exposed and uneven on the path beneath my feet, but on the hill it was blanketed with cushioned green. On warm days, no wind, there was a heavy stillness full of wild flowers and the hum of insects. The paintings in this show are visual poetry exploring these experiences.

Emily Ball

Emily Ball, MA Painting has been a practising artist since 1989. Exhibiting in the RA Summer Exhibition, prize winner in the National Open Art Exhibition and the author of 2 highly successful books about Painting.

Emily is currently director of her Painting School 'Emily Ball at Seawhite', and has a team of 5 artist tutors running courses. The school has grown, as has its international reputation. Students travel from all over the world to attend courses and Emily also travels nationally and internationally to teach painting courses. In 2019 she was invited on a cultural exchange to China, with 7 other British Artists, where she made paintings and was given the most fantastic opportunity to explore Chinese culture, landscape and painting.

• 2021 her drawing 'Self Portrait as a 'Confident Woman' was selected for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize and toured around the UK. Currently she is working a new body of work called 'Longing and Sweet Sadness' which explores her connection to her childhood home, memories and the feeling of being in the woods behind her parents house. She strives to be a poet in paint, pushing further into the expressive possibilities of translating sensation and experience into a painted visual language.