Emma Richardson - The Great Rebellion

These paintings explore power. The power of desire and the power of the natural world. She has long been fascinated with the idea of ​​the dangerous woman, the femme fatale, a woman who represents a threat in a society where for women to show ambition, emotion and sexual appetite is still an act of rebellion. Parallel to this is the power and ferocity of Mother Earth and our naivety in thinking we can control her. The progress of the climate crisis with worsening storms, wild fires, extreme heat and flash floods around the world is terrifying. This leads the artist to draw inspiration from apocalyptic imagery created throughout history to articulate collective anxieties and act as a warning or a yearning for salvation. The artist is inspired by the old masters, the drama of the Baroque, the women of surrealism and abstract expressionism, as well as contemporary painting. With these psychosexual landscapes she brings her perspective, evoking the struggle between the spirit of the times and our inner world, hidden desires and the collective unconscious.