Emma Whiting

Painting, York

‘I have always loved houses, the romantic in me fascinated by houses in stories, from Anne of Green Gables to Jane Eyre, the ice filled palace of Dr Zhivago and the cobwebs of Satis House in Great Expectations. Houses hold things and hide things. In a city of so much uniform housing, a yellow door can sing in the sunshine, and the surprised and kindly resident gave me permission to draw from across the street. In contrast the tiny cottage on the beach seemed to come straight from a fairytale, mysterious, uninhabited and enchanting.

‘The process of painting itself is for me a kind of odyssey, a struggle to find an image amid the marks which will suddenly reveal itself to be a destination, a homecoming. My aim for the work, whatever its theme or inspiration, is to create something which seems familiar to the viewer, and can touch or illuminate a shared experience or emotion. I love to smudge, smear and scrape. My hope is that the pleasure and the process will result in an image which can tell its story, and speak to someone else of home.'