Emma Mortier

Mijn atelier is open op zondag 18 Mei.

My work is an absorption, a translation of what I see and experience. It becomes an act of painting when I start a new work. And it also develops that way. I do start from my own drawings each time but it soon becomes a painting on itself, and then it demands different additions.
A part of these additions can be (geometric) patterns. I find them within the new painting or collect them from my original sea drawings. There are also additions which have nothing to do with the existing painting, but create a contrast and give a twisted feeling. All this to make the painting stand on its own and tell a purely visible, painted story.

I also try to search for different materials (e.g. mica, oil bars or tracing paper) to make contrasts, always in a ‘painterly’ way. I use them as tools to broaden the canvas and the painting. That is the reason why I started to experiment with screen printing. I use the technique in a non-reproducing way wich makes it, for me, interesting and valuable. It gives me more options in experimenting with colors, forms and textures. It seems that now I can also travel in the screen painting process. I can use it as an extra tool to make even more different patterns and forms.

Together with the screen painting I wander around in the possibilities of the 3D object. Sometimes I try to paint with materials without using the canvas. It is an experiment, a travel in my studio with the purpose of broadening my view and limits. The 3D works are, for me, paintings as well, because they fit in the same story I want to tell with my 2D paintings. They are made in exactly the same way.

Emma Mortier - 2024