Emily Uttley is a visual artist based in Leeds who uses drawing, painting, photography and digital illustration to portray her fascination with the depth and range of the human condition. She mostly draws from found imagery to inspire her paintings, creating emotive and highly detailed work by using a sensitive approach to colour, composition, form and movement.
In 2021, she was awarded first prize for Artworks Together - an international arts competition organised by Artworks South Yorkshire, that was judged by a panel of 6 high profile, internationally recognised artists and curators. In 2020, she graduated from The University of Manchester with a degree in French Studies and History of Art and in 2016, she completed a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University, specialising in Fi-ne Art.
In 2018, she designed many documentary posters for the film distribution company Java films while doing a 6 month long internship for the firm which is based in Paris. In 2021, her work was featured on BBC Look North when it was awarded first prize for the Artworks Together 2021 competition. She was also interviewed by the Sheffield-based independent magazine Now Then, in which an article was written about it. That year, she also published an article for Surj Magazine titled “We Need More Positive Representations of Autistic Women in the Media” in which she wrote about her own experiences of living with the condition. Along with the article, Emily created a piece of artwork which helped illustrate the points raised.
In 2022, she was invited by Henshaws Arts & Crafts Centre to make a piece of artwork for the charity art sale “Henshaws Hundreds Art”, which will be held in June 2022. The piece will retail for £100 amongst other works and is yet to be revealed. Furthermore, in March 2022, Emily also exhibited two pieces of art at the Young Blood Vol. II exhibition at the Holy Art gallery in London.
Depicting subject matters that often feature lone figures in isolated and intimate environments, Emily's work discreetly centres around mental health, through evoking the private and painful emotions that come with it. Her figures can be found in meditative poses; their tender and subtle relationship to body language creates a dialogue which ambiguously depicts their thoughts and feelings.
To create her images, Emily reconstructs and decontextualisessecondhand imagery which stands out to her; taken from films and the media. She is interested in the transitory nature of drawing, and in using colour to create mood within painting. Because of this, she uses processes such as drawing and erasing, sequencing, layering and fragmentation within her both her hand and digital drawing. In her painting, Emily focuses on creating a distinctive style through her bold and smooth choices of colour, combined with repetitive techniques of line, form and an abundant attention to detail.