John Emanuel

John Emanuel works in Porthmeor, Cornwall. He has received no formal art training. His natural creativity is inspired by a love of his subject - the figure and the figure embraced by the landscape has developed into a consistent theme.

His drawings exhibit a clear, classical form and a simplicity of line which strengthens the relationship between the contours of the figure and the contours of the land. He loves the singular beauty of the Cornish coastline and the extraordinary light.

The notion of forms sleeping beneath the earth are a recurring theme. John Emanuel works in a variety of media: charcoal, gouache, oils and, more recently mixed media and lino-types, a method he learned from John Wells. His preferred medium is oil paint using hand and mould made papers laid down on archive quality board.Blue paintings, green paintings or orange paintings: his monochrome portraits are almost minimalist.

The art critic Frank Ruhrmund has observed that "his works go beyond the nude. He has always striven to transcend the obvious and succeeded, and they have as much to do with the local landscape as they do with the human figure". "It is the figure, not the nude I am interested in..." says the artist.