Paul Emsley
Although Emsley was born in Glasgow in 1947, he grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. After his studies at Cape Technical College in 1969 he earned a living as a designer in advertising. Aged twenty-nine he began to draw and paint. After exhibiting widely he taught drawing and painting from 1983 at the Department of Creative Arts, Stellenbosch University. He moved to England in 1996 where he gave up teaching to devote himself entirely to his art.
He specialises in large depictions of single subjects, mainly animals, but also the human face, landscapes and flowers. His preferred method is black and white chalk drawings although he also paints in oil or acrylic on canvas and sometimes in water-colour. Emsley says that he has always loved drawing, 'the dryness of the paper and the chalk demand precision and exactness. It quickly exposes one’s weaknesses and mistakes, leaving no room for cleverness or tricks'. His technique is based on observation but distilled through experience, so that the images he makes are not photo-realist, but offer a highly individual take on the appearance of the world, the fall of light and the passage of time.
Since 1978 his work has been shown in North and South America as well as South Africa. His first solo exhibition in the UK was in 1994. In 2012 he was chosen to paint the first official portrait of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge to be exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery.
Awards:
1987 Merit Award - Standard Bank National Drawing Competition
2000 Bovis/Architect's Journal Special Award - Royal Academy of Arts, London
2001 Commended - First Painting Open, RWA, Bristol
2001 Third Prize - Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2002 First Prize - Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2003 Third Prize - Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2004 UWE Drawing Prize - Autumn Exhibition, RWA, Bristol
2005 Silver Award for Works on Paper - British Interior Design Association, Art London
2007 First Prize - BP Portrait Award 2007, The National Portrait Gallery, London
2008 UWE Drawing Prize, Autumn Exhibition, RWA, Bristol
He specialises in large depictions of single subjects, mainly animals, but also the human face, landscapes and flowers. His preferred method is black and white chalk drawings although he also paints in oil or acrylic on canvas and sometimes in water-colour. Emsley says that he has always loved drawing, 'the dryness of the paper and the chalk demand precision and exactness. It quickly exposes one’s weaknesses and mistakes, leaving no room for cleverness or tricks'. His technique is based on observation but distilled through experience, so that the images he makes are not photo-realist, but offer a highly individual take on the appearance of the world, the fall of light and the passage of time.
Since 1978 his work has been shown in North and South America as well as South Africa. His first solo exhibition in the UK was in 1994. In 2012 he was chosen to paint the first official portrait of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge to be exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery.
Awards:
1987 Merit Award - Standard Bank National Drawing Competition
2000 Bovis/Architect's Journal Special Award - Royal Academy of Arts, London
2001 Commended - First Painting Open, RWA, Bristol
2001 Third Prize - Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2002 First Prize - Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2003 Third Prize - Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2004 UWE Drawing Prize - Autumn Exhibition, RWA, Bristol
2005 Silver Award for Works on Paper - British Interior Design Association, Art London
2007 First Prize - BP Portrait Award 2007, The National Portrait Gallery, London
2008 UWE Drawing Prize, Autumn Exhibition, RWA, Bristol
