INTRODUCTION June 2024
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. 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 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.
Eileadh Swan Gallery Director
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