The beautiful images that decorate this double page spread as you’ve probably guessed are the creations of an artist, and if you’ve ever read a CommunityAd magazine you’ll know for certain it’s a local artist. However, what you won’t have guessed is the age of the creator, as Emily the artist is the talented thirteen-year-old responsible.
Emily has lived here in Maidstone all her life, it’s a place she appreciates and enjoys due to the river and the bountiful biking and walking routes that the town offers. When it comes to her free time if she’s not creating, sketching or watercolouring then there’s a good chance she’s climbing as she confesses to CommunityAd that “Climbing Experience is my favourite place, it’s like my second home.”
We caught Emily the artist on ground level to ask Maidstone’s budding young artist a few questions about her talent.
When did you first pick up the paints and start creating your amazing artwork?
I first started doing art when I was 5 years old when I mainly drew and painted simple pictures. My Nanny is an artist and taught me and took me to art classes sometimes.
Would you say the lockdowns have led you to create more often?
The lockdowns have really given me time to create more work. With being off school and being at home more I felt that I had more free time. And if I was bored I would just do art to pass the time. I think lockdown really helped me progress on skill because I was given more time to be creative.
I think it is really good that more people are trying art and I think that it can be very beneficial to people. It really helps people to get creative and most people will find it is something they really enjoy and it is a good pastime.
We love your style, what is it about watercolours that you enjoy using so much?
I enjoy using paints and mainly watercolour because it gives me more freedom. There are lots of techniques that you can try and it is fun to explore. I also think it is the most fun one of the mediums and the one I enjoy using most. I like trying different styles and finding which ones are fun and which ones I would not try again. I also do many different types of pictures because it keeps doing art interesting.