Carnival of Colour with Emma Sheldrake
Combining food, fashion and frivolity, Jodie Cameron chats to our Autumn Cover Artist, a creative chameleon who has mastered the art of the cheeky glint…
What do you get when you cross a little bit of sass, a whole lot of sparkle and an abundance of talent? Emma Sheldrake.
Arriving at her hinterland abode, I knew I was going to meet a self-confessed colour fiend, but I wasn’t prepared for the backdrop of native blooms standing guard against the ethereal greens of the forest.
Em’s infectious warmth was instant, as was the mutual attraction of her feline shadow, Ziggy. I’m not a cat person, but let’s just say after he interrupted me mid-sentence to kiss my nose – my son’s plea for a cat that morning might not have been such a bad idea after all. From one cheeky glinter to another, we shared a chuckle and within minutes it felt like I was catching up with a long-lost friend for a cuppa.
For twenty years, Em has balanced three distinct worlds – pop artist, designer, and photographer, but this chaser of light has found her stride and isn’t afraid of a little heat either. In a cathartic act of cleansing, she burned 26 of her own canvases to clear the path for her most exciting chapter yet – fusing her award-winning food photography and fashion with a cinematic edge.
“I needed to minimalise, and I didn’t want to put work out there that I wasn’t happy with,” Em reflected. “The way the flames caught the eyes on the canvases as they turned to ash, made them artworks in their own right.”
After navigating the diabolical stillness of the pandemic, Em has found a new edge by blending her passions. With a keen eye for colour and precision, she won the Cream of the Crop category in the coveted 2021 World Food Photographer of the Year Awards for her image Cinnamon.
“I came to a point where I thought, how can I put everything I’ve done over the years into this collection?” she shared.
Utilising her background in graphic design and photography – from glossy red lips to the art of the perfect prawn, Em’s latest work has a distinct cinematic yet playful mood, almost like a still pulled from an old film.
Showing me around her funky forest-side studio, the walls were adorned with celebrity portraits alongside treasured trinkets from her travels. As her mother hens free ranged outside, Em placed a tiny newborn chick in my hands, instantly reminding me of the grounding magic of chickens.
Her workspace is beyond idyllic, and as she talked about life with twin daughters and her incredible artistic journey there was a humbling twinkle in her eye. With unplanned breaks from the camera and canvas, life has had its share of ups and downs but with every turn it’s clear just how hard she’s worked to create this soulful and spirited life for herself.
“I have lived a very staccato life – wanting to be at the canvas for 18 hours, but also having to balance this with motherhood,” she says. “Thank God I’m an artist, photographer and a designer because these aren’t just hobbies; they are my ecosystem and I’m so grateful
I get to combine all of my passions.”
Em’s latest Italian Series includes Tomato Salsa – a textured fiesta of colour, and our radiant Autumn front cover.
Mapping out her canvases with precision, for Em digital tools are a sketchbook, rather than a shortcut. Using Photoshop and AI-influenced techniques to explore narratives and compositions first, Em has embraced this sophisticated pre-production phase which clears the mental clutter, allowing her to then take over the canvas with a palette knife and raw passion.
“The drawdown time is exchanged for a digital drawdown,” she says. “It’s not how I approach every piece, but it’s a tool that’s creating efficiencies whether I’m picking up a camera, a pencil, or a digital brush – it’s all about the energy I leave behind.”
Despite her initial groundwork, the final result remains deeply rooted in grit and gut-instinct, her paintings always starting with the eyes.
“If they meet mine and I can connect, that’s it for me,” she says. “I’m always chasing the glint.”
It’s a discipline she inherited from her parents – her father a fine artist and architectural illustrator, and her mother also a fellow creative. They remain her toughest critics.
“I’m like a wound-up spring and my parents are like teenagers who won’t call me back,” she laughed. “I’ll send a photo of a piece and expect a call back immediately, but they’ll be out shopping. My Mum says, ‘Oh no, it’s the manic artist again!’”
I was drawn to a new portrait, Lime after Lime (we love you Cyndi Lauper), which sat fresh on Em’s easel – sparkling apple green eyes speaking in direct unison to the fluorescent green limes she’s suggestively holding.
Em’s art is a carnival of her years, and a fusion of food-as-fashion that explodes in a frenzy of striking women adorned with lobsters, crabs, and vivid fabrics. A lover of life and believer in living every moment to the fullest, her love language is food.
Emma says the dripping eyes that have been a signature of her work over the years were a happy accident.
“The paint continued working after I left the studio,” Em explained. “It’s a deliberate departure from perfect beauty; I like to blur the lines by letting the paint run and drip, so it creates a fiesta on the canvas that celebrates the enjoyment of life, not a stifled part of society.”
With 60 shows under her belt and a milestone celebration at Red Hill Gallery in Brisbane this July, the cheeky glint in Em’s eye isn’t just a signature of her art – it’s a reflection of a woman who isn’t just painting portraits. She’s painting the energy she wants to see in the world and learning that sometimes you have to burn the past to light up the future.
Em is exactly where she wants to be – grounded in the hinterland and ready to see where the next happy accident takes her.
Visit www.emmasheldrake.com or follow her adventures on Instagram @emmasheldrakeartist and @emma_jane_sheldrake for her photographic work.
