• Begin with colour.

    Everything on New Blood Art is original: unique paintings, drawings and sculpture, and fine art prints made by hand by the artist in small signed editions. The one exception is The Print Studio, a separate section of reproductions of original works.

  • ARTISTS
  • SPOTLIGHT
  • JOURNAL
  • THE PRINT STUDIO
  • ABOUT
  • PRESS
  • THE FOUNDATION
SEARCH 0

A Kind of Alchemy

We’re delighted to introduce Emily Oades to the gallery, a young artist just graduated from Leeds Arts University. The oil paintings she's producing are ambitious, head-turning works that recall the seminal contemporary British painter Cecily Brown – who once described painting as a transformative “kind of alchemy.” We hope you enjoy browsing Emily’s work here.


Our take:

In these arresting, monumental paintings the mood is nevertheless light – ecstatic, even – just as the application of the oil paint is light, deftly done. Compositionally her paintings will have many centres: equilibrium through multiplicity. They feel cellular in their symmetric / asymmetric rhythm. Layers upon layers of paint represent embodied desire.

Usually Emily’s paintings are overwhelmingly abstract, but on occasion coalesce into recognisable scenes, or glimpses of human forms. They do so in such a way as to reconsider distinctions between abstract and figurative scenes. Both entail an essential energy: the painter’s line – whether transcribing an abstract shape or gesture, or the shape of a limb or head – conveys electricity.

View all 2022 graduates work here

All work available to buy with an interest free Art loan. Select OwnArt at the payment page.

Words by Maggie

An Annihilation of Obscured Flesh by Emily Oades, £700
Hypnotic Sensuality by Emily Oades, SOLD
In the Taller Grass by Emily Oades, £1,300
Weak Knees by Emily Oades, £550

Back to blog

Director's Picks