Painted in the quiet of a Sunday afternoon, The Thinker captures a moment of stillness, reflection, and emotional clarity. Midway through the Wonder Series, this portrait marked a shift, subtle, tender, and deeply introspective. Woven with memories of grief, personal change, and the echoes of The Sound of Silence, it became not just a painting, but a quiet reckoning.

A bold new solo exhibition by Emma Woolley, The Wonder Series explores softness, wildness, and everything in between. Running 8–31 August at • nook • gallery, with limited edition zines, signed prints, and a sensory opening night.

She looks soft… but she’s full of bite! Painted in a moment of spring reawakening, Parma Violet became the cult classic of my Wonder Series. A swirl of candyfloss colour, instinct, and 90s witch energy, she’s sweet on the surface with a wild alter ego underneath.

A quiet, instinctive portrait created outside of a larger body of work. Rise captures a raw and intimate moment of waking, love, and reflection - painted in a single day with no plan, just presence. A personal exploration of grief, closeness, and what it means to simply rise.

I’m incredibly honoured to share that my painting The Space Between Us Hashtag 05 has been shortlisted for the Women in Art Prize 2025, in the Paula Rego Painting Prize category. As a lifelong admirer of Paula Rego’s powerful, emotive work, this recognition means the world to me - especially for a piece that holds so much personal meaning. This blog post reflects on the painting, the journey behind it, and what this shortlisting truly represents.

Pan was painted on a quiet afternoon in May 2024 - not just a portrait, but a return to self. Each brushstroke carried memory, emotion, and presence. This isn’t simply a face. It’s a story of healing, wonder, and rediscovery in the wake of loss.

Boy in Red Glasses was the first painting I made after a year away from the brush, grieving my mum. This reflection shares how it felt to begin again, and how that quiet moment of painting started what would become The Wonder Series.

Yesterday, I finally got to see Jenny Saville’s The Anatomy of Painting exhibition. I’ve been waiting so long for this… she’s been a huge influence on me for the last 25 years…

Some paintings arrive fully formed in your head. Others sneak up on you. The Pirate was definitely the latter…

Okay, so it might not look like much… but this right here — a single sheet of OSB board — is the start of something I’ve been craving for ages.

Over the past few months, something really special has been quietly unfolding behind the scenes—In Full Flow, a new collective of painters I feel incredibly proud to be part of…

It all begins with an idea.

Hello and welcome to my Studio Journal — a quiet corner to share what I’ve been making, thinking, and experimenting with in the studio…