Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Thornton

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?

Having worked many years as an inhouse art and film director at one of the worlds leading furniture companies, I suddenly felt a strong urge to create something that was not customer orientated, had no deadline to take into account and with only one beneficiary – myself.

So after years of neglect I picked up the brushes I hadn’t touched since art school a good 20 years back and started painting again. A bunch of ficitve people appeared on the canvas and the joy I felt at painting has not left me since. As people started appreciating my portraits I spent more and more time on my so called ‘newly found’ passion, I took on commissions, did murals and all of a sudden I was earning my way as a part time artist.

Today I have expanded my business to also include wool tufted portraits, a passion I picked up just the other year, and I absolutely love it!

Even though I haven’t let go of my art direction career entirely I’m very proud of following my passion and being brave enough to start my own art business. I’m a creator and always will be in one form or an other, and right now painting and tufting large scale portraits is my creative outlet.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Many people think of art as only passion driven, but I try to steer away from that thinking. Artist work CAN BE passionately fulfilling and make you feel as if you’re floating on clouds, but it can also be frustrating and tiresome and full of anguish.

Passion is lovely when it fills every cell of your being, but it’s rare to feel that way about your job at any lengthy time period, so therefore I’ve always treated my art career as classic labour. I don’t sit around waiting for the divine ‘passion’ to hit me like a tornado to be able to start with my art project, I just get at it. I work, work, work and try to stay curious whilst doing so. Most often that curiosity leads me into new and unexpected paths, taking my art this way or that. It’s a bit like magic. You start off with an idea, you bow down and do the work and the next time you look at your piece it has turned into something completely new and unexpected! It’s fascinating!

That doesn’t mean it smooth sailing all the way of course, but I find that if I manage to stay devoted to the project and try to stay curious I often get an interesting result which surprises me as much as the viewer.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

I have always been interested in painting people, in creating fictive personalities. Everything I see influences me in one way or another! But my greatest source of inspiration is just watching people – their facial expressions, their body language, their gait. Before the kids arrived, I could sit at a café or park bench for hours just observing the people around me (people-watching behind dark glasses is a secret speciality of mine).

I create expressive, bold portraits either painted on canvas or tufted wool wall hangings, often portraying eclectic day-dreamers. I have always been drawn to people’s quirks and flaws. It’s probably based on an obsession I have with my own identity, so I search (and find!) my traits and quirks in others. I find that the most beautiful traits are found beneath the hidden layers.

I love people in general (Not in a creepy way! Keep your pants on!) But people full of quirks, oddities, flaws and unfulfilled dreams. It so relatable, the imperfect.

Lately I have been specifically interested in the modern obsession with self-image and our relationship to health and beauty. (I mean, counting steps? Is that really a healthy usage of our brains’ capacity??)

Through my art, I try to celebrate the ordinary and the beautifully mundane by emphasizing people’s quirks. I add layers of thick paint on the canvas to enhance each emerging portrait’s personality. And in my mind, simultaneously, I peel off the layers of the portraité to get to their very essence. It’s a game of shielding and flaunting.

By the end of the process I know my people intimately and have created an entire universe around them (which I often write down too). I paint specific people with universal feelings. I’m just fascinated by the relatability of it all.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?

Covid didn’t affect me as much as one might of thought it should, being a small art business owner. I found that oddly enough my art sold quite well during the crisis. Maybe people needed relateable portraits/art stories to cling to when the world was unside down? Also, living in Sweden where the lock down wasn’t as much of a lock down as in most other parts of the world, I could continue my day to day quite uninterupted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thorntonartwork.com
• Instagram: @thorntonartwork.ab
• Facebook: facebook/thorntonartwork.ab

Image Credits

All photos are artist’s own.