Cric in the Snow (Crickhowell, Wales) (2013) Painting by Emma Cownie
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Original Artwork (One Of A Kind)
Painting,
Oil
on Linen Canvas
- Dimensions Height 31.5in, Width 23.6in
- Framing This artwork is not framed
I love painting snow, whether brillant midday sun, blue-tinged, snow or pinky sunset snow. I love how blues and pinks hover above the snowy white. I love the snow's power to transform, to turn a plain town into a lovely town, and a lovely town in something quite majestic. In "Crick in the Snow, the lovely village of Crickhowell in the Brecons is transformed into a picture-postcard beauty by the snow and the dramatic background of the snow glistering hills. I live by the sea where the salty sea erodes most heavy snow drifts. Thus I have to travel inland to the Welsh Valleys and beyond to find my snow laden landscapes. In this painting I love the intricacy of the hedge rows climbing up the hills, the lacy threads of winter hedges, the patterns and the line and shapes. It has a "brueghelian" Christmas feel. All that is missing is the sleighing children, and swirling skates. I love the warm colours of the houses in the foreground contrasting with the cold blues in the distance countryside. The habitable back-lit with the inhabitable. This heightens the feeling of Christmas, all wrapped up in each other's shops and homes, and lives; reassuringly, comfortably, necessarily away from the icy outside, the outer reaches, around this human fire of company. This is a painting of a winter community as well as winter community more generally.
Born in Hereford, educated in Cardiff and London, I am a professional contemporary artist, specializing in oil paintings. I am based in Donegal, Ireland and Derry, NI. All my life I have loved being creative – whether it was drawing and sketching as a teenager, drawing with oil pastels and screen print-making in my 20s and finally focusing on photography and oil painting in adult life.
I originally trained as a professional Medieval Historian and then worked in Secondary Education for almost two decades until my life took an unexpected turn. On 29th February 2012 I was involved in a car accident which led to me developing PTSD and having a breakdown. My emotional recovery was long and exhausting and is still ongoing. Art was an essential part of that process and still is. I have been a professional artist since 2013, part-time until the summer 2016 when I became a full-time professional artist.
I paint most days. My work focuses on light and colour, whether I paint rural landscapes, urban streets, seascapes or figurative work. I like to paint people walking around in their everyday lives, painting moods, anticipations, and atmospheres, trying to express presence and pathos. I notice things that others miss. I am fascinated by details and relationships.
In my work, I am drawn to light and shadows and how they shape our emotions. I remember visiting the South of France as a teenager and being mesmerized by the dazzling light, I have been attempting to capture that excitement about light in my paintings ever since. I aim to make people look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary beauty in it.
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