Artist Emily Powell's Scottish exhibition is a unique mix of fearlessness and trust

Morningside Gallery, Edinburgh presents EMILY POWELL: THE LAND BELOW THE WAVES:  JUNE 29 - JULY 13

It is with a unique mix of fearlessness and trust, along with a keen sense of adventure, that an artist sets off for a tiny Scottish island that she has never heard of for two weeks, with not much more than a van of blank canvases and a solo exhibition deadline, husband and two year old daughter in tow.

That artist is Emily Powell, and the island is Tiree, a slither of an island three miles wide and thirteen long, fondly known as the Land Below the Waves.

Born in 1990 and growing up in Liverpool, Powell went on to study at Norwich School of Art for her formal training with a sabbatical at the Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rouen (2008-2011). She featured in a BBC documentary about the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and has guest lectured for Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Recent exhibitions have seen her hailed as ‘one of the most important emerging artists in the UK today.’

What Emily found on Tiree was a sky so big it seemed to hold the world in it, deep turquoise seas, colourful boats bobbing in the harbour, and beaches of bleached white sand shimmering with the iridescence of long crushed shells.

Black houses, clustered together like old friends dotted over the island, pink and purple sea thrift fringing the shoreline, bright yellow mosses singing against the black of rock, and oyster catchers – their beaks a gift of bright red against a grey sky.

And of course, a Scottish wind that whipped against her cheeks. A feeling of being truly alive.

It is this feeling that Emily conveys so urgently on the canvas, this ‘being alive-ness’, inviting us to feel it with her, because, after all, are we not alive too?

This force of life that drives Emily to seek out new places where she can explore, feel and paint is the real subject of this exhibition and each of Emily’s paintings express the joy that comes with being adventurous and taking risks,

living fully as an artist and as a mother. Free of artifice and convention, the colours sing, and Emily’s subjects – birds, rocks, boats, cottages – are all equally alive on the canvas. Following her brushstrokes we feel both the wind and the freedom. Here, all is well.

The exhibition will feature Emily’s celebrated large scale floral works, alongside evocative Tiree seascapes, and a selection of works on paper, all painted on the island. Works on paper and unframed small paintings can all be viewed here.

‘The Land Below the Waves’ by Emily Powell starts this week and runs until 13th July 2024 at Morningside Gallery in Edinburgh -  94 Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4BY

Click here for details and to view the exhibition catalogue here

**** PRIVATE VIEW AND MEET THE ARTIST EMILY POWELL

ON FRIDAY 28TH JUNE 6 – 8 PM ****

VIEW EXHIBITION  LIVE ON SITE NOW  

https://www.morningsidegallery.co.uk/exhibition/emily-powell-solo-exhibition