Emily Ball
I encourage students to take risks and experiment with their approach to creating images and their use of materials. I do not teach traditional techniques. I help students to push their work forward and find ways of refreshing, strengthening and expanding their methods of selecting and assembly of information to create work that is individual and exciting.
What will students gain if they come on one of your courses?They will gain confidence to develop their own visual language and ways of not just copying what they see. They will come away with lots of exercises that they can apply to their work, at any time, to stop them getting stuck, bored or tight with what they are doing. They will come away challenged and inspired with new ideas and approaches to painting and drawing.
Are there any particular techniques/processes you use in your teaching?I create exercises that unpack the creative process, help students to take risks when stuck and understand the importance of the materials and marks that they make. The exercises range from simple steps to simplify selection from a subject and layering of information to helping students to access a more intuitive freedom to the way that they work. I encourage the use of acrylics, oils or mixed media because I like to show students how they can change, layer and edit their work to find exciting and unplanned results.
What inspires your own work?The subjects I choose are things that I experience first hand. I use the visual richness and selection to make an image but also combine it with the physical sensation and the excitement of a subject. My subjects have varied from landscapes, seascapes, drawing the head and my children playing in the house and garden.
Where can students see examples of your work?I exhibit my work regularly and all exhibitions are listed on my website and I have work in two exhibitions this year. The first at the Moncrieff-Bray Gallery May 30th – June 12th 2009 (this is a group show to launch my recently published book) and the second at the Chalk Hill Gallery, Guildford June 5th – 26th 2009 .
Where did you gain your training/experience?BA - Exeter College of Art, MA - Surrey Institute of Fine Art, Farnham. Tutored by John Skinner at the Abbotsbury Studio. City and Guilds Further Education Teaching Diploma.
What teaching experience have you had?I am the director and main tutor of ‘Emily Ball at Seawhite’. This is a large painting and drawing studio based in Partridge Green. I have been running my own business, teaching private courses for 15 years to mature students. I have been artist in residence in schools and museums in he south. I have taught at West Dean College for eight years. I have taught art courses in the South of France. I was also partner in a company called ‘Hot Brushes’ that ran professional development courses for businesses using painting and drawing as a tool to explore risk taking, creativity and team building.
Is your work in any public or private collections?Two large commissioned seascapes at Southlands Hospital in Worthing
Have you written any books/had any articles published?‘Drawing and Painting People – A Fresh Approach’ published February 2009