Emma Stibbon - artist

Tuscany residency 2002

I work primarily in drawing and print. Landscape is a central preoccupation in my practice. In 2002 I received the Janet Konstam travel award to undertake two weeks of drawing in the marble quarries of Carrara. This was followed by a two week residency at the Verrochio Centre supported by the Juliet Gomperts Trust. This opportunity allowed me to develop my practice on location, to draw and research for a month without interruption and also study the art collections in Tuscany. From this I was able to build a new body of work. The generous support of the Juliet Gomperts Trust also gave me encouragement at an early stage of my professional practice as an artist.

The quarried landscape of Carrara had fascinated me for some time. I often work from places that place a powerful sense of perspective on the viewer and am interested in environments which are in a condition of flux or change. This may be through the built, urban environment, worked industrial spaces or uninhabited remote places. The subjects are connected by their sense of scale and drama. The images are rarely populated, with little element of narrative. Instead I attempt to draw the viewer into the pictorial space, involving them through the perspectival arrangement of space, or motif.

The drawing process is central to my work and printmaking offers a further graphic  translation. Attracted by the tonal drama of the woodcut process, I have been making large scale prints since 1990.