Focusing almost exclusively on nude portraits and studies of human flesh, Emma Hopkins turned to portrait-painting after graduating with a degree in Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance from the University of the Arts London, where she trained in the design and making of prosthetic body parts for theatre, film and television.
'I want to understand as much as I can about what it means to be human,' she says. 'We are not just the clothed person we present to the world. We are the mind and body that we inhabit. There are aspects that connect us all and we are also unique individuals. I moved into painting portraits because it is a celebration of this.'
Employing a variety of materials to create multiple interpretations of her sitters, the works progress from intuitive studies that teeter on the edges of abstraction and surrealism to emotionally charged oil paintings that are sculptural in style and clinical in detail.
