Capital Painter

When it comes to art, I know what I like and I’m not influenced by reputation or opinion. I’m not the kind of person who will “follow the crowd” or buy something simply because I’m told it’s the thing to have. If a painting is hanging up on my wall its because I like it there and it reflects something about who I am as much as what the artist is trying to tell me. So when I came across the work of artist Emma O’ Rourke, I was immediately taken by her style and ability. Not only did I see something uniquely diverse in what she was painting; it also appealed to me and made me want to meet the woman behind the art.

At first glance, she is very much as I expected her to be; she has a fluid style and individual way about her, as if she moves along channels in life that other people failed to recognise. There is also a charming eccentricity to her personality and as we sat down to begin the interview, I instinctively knew we were going to hit it off.

Emma O’ Rourke is talented; there is no question of that. She has been painting – she told me – since she was 3 years of age and at school she would always win the art competitions set by her tutors ahead of her fellow students. She also had her first painting displayed in the Ben Uri museum in London when she was barely starting nursery!

“I have lived a very contentious life and my family upbringing had considerable influence over how I grew up. My father travelled a lot but I had a close relationship with both him and my mother.”

Emma went to St Martin’s College in London and studied fashion which she has always had an interest in. “The problem for me was that I would often get into trouble for painting when I should have been sketching my designs. I lived with my parents during college but they did not support what I was doing, so it was pretty tough. It’s a hard industry to make money in anyway and in the early days I would paint murals in clubs and even do fliers just to get my pictures about and keep my hand in with my work.

“Finally, I managed to get a job with an advertising agency and I decided to do more commercial art – mainly because I needed the money. The company I was working for really liked me because I came as a complete package for them: I was able to write, photograph and design, which meant I could in effect do 3 people’s jobs in 1!”

At college, Emma also spent some time working with the renowned designer Lulu Guinness, as her assistant and Lulu proved very inspiring for the ambitious young artist. It was during this time that she also won the prestigious Rimmel Creative Advertising Award for designing writing and illustrating a double page ad for Rimmel make-up which ran in all the major glossy womens' Mags. 

“It was a life changing time for me. Lulu Guinness is an amazing person. Working as the first ever assistant for such an ambitious woman, who happened to be pregnant with her first child and still starting a fashion empire was very inspiring. She could be a wife, a home-maker, a mother and a creative powerhouse all in one and possesses a strong personality and personal style which is both unique and motivational.”

This concept of strength whilst maintaining femininity has translated to O'Rourke's paintings.

"Whilst I paint peonies and roses, I use strong swipes of paint and wax, and then draw strongly into the paint with graphite, defining the image." Perhaps this is why so many successful women are drawn to and have bought her paintings.

“Outside of Lulu, the other great influences on me include DavidHockney, Toulouse Lautrec, Gustav Klimt, Louis Bourgeois and Georgia O'Keefe.”

Emma didn’t have to wait long before her first commercial success as she sold her first painting when she was just 15 years of age. “An interior designer in Spain bought it from me. It was an oil pastel of a girl. I had it on display in my mother’s house and she had decorators in. The guy who was doing the work was so taken by the picture that he asked her if he could buy it.” 

Being English myself, I was curious to discover what differences Emma saw in the British and American markets.

“It’s a pretty tough one to answer. America is so large. Classical artists seem to do well here whilst in the UK everything is much more conceptual. Art covers such a vast spectrum that it’s difficult to narrow it down too much.

“My move to America was purely because of my husband, Peter. I didn’t have any set agenda to try and conquer the States with my work”. Married and with 2 children – 5 year old Chloe and 7 year old Tate – I went on to ask Emma how much of an impact her family have on her work.

“Sometimes I look at Chloe's drawing and I find it liberating. However, I do think it’s important for women to have something of their own outside of being a mother and wife. I look at artists like O'Keeffe and they have something beautiful that is a part of them and separate to everything else that surrounds them. 

“Outside of family, another drive for me is spirituality. I wouldn’t call myself an overly religious person but I do feel that all religions are linked. After all, whatever your following, faith is a mandatory requirement of every belief system. However, saying that, I do bring my children up with religion because I believe it provides them with an important grounding. When they are old enough then they can make up their own minds”.

Of course, it isn’t all work for Emma and outside of her career she does have a number of varied interests which stray away from art. “I like gardening and flower arranging – I did all the landscape work in my garden myself. I’m also a bit of a health fanatic. I think it is important to watch what you put in your body. Currently, I am on a new gluten free diet. As an off-shoot of this I am also getting more into my cooking; experimenting with new ideas and flavours. So far I’ve had no complaints so I’ll keep at it! “I visit the gym regularly – a healthy body is a healthy mind – because it helps my focus”

If you would like some more information about Emma O’ Rourke and her work then visit her website at

emmaorourke.com

Melanie Doran

Posted Thu, 04/30/2009 - 16:07 by Melanie Doran