Many artists will tell you that painting is a constant struggle — a battle with materials and ideas. To make paint say what you want to communicate is a never-ending challenge; it requires commitment, resolution, and self-belief, and paradoxically, a measure of delusional thinking. The tortured artist, working against impossible odds to release an inner creative spirit, is the stuff of folk legend. If the objective of personal expression could be readily achieved, a single pa

Damien Hirst used formaldehyde; he would have been better served by an eco-friendly peat bog. 'Between Worlds' abstract Fenland painting..

Oil and Cold ax painting of a forest 100 x 150 cm on canvas

'Days stretched calm and plain to the horizon, as though we rose out of peat and will dwindle in a rumour of fog' Words by Emma Danes. This painting belongs to a group of works I have called The Light Series. It is a personal reflection on landscape — the landscape that surrounds me, the fields and skies of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands. The painting carries no topographical information: no trees, mountain peaks, hedgerows, or river valleys to navigate. The only compass availab

'After Glow' 80 x 80 cm Acrylic on Canvas 'Afterglow' — The Light Series This painting belongs to The Light Series, a group of works concerned with the landscape of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands. It is a personal reflection on the open fields and skies of East Anglia, though the work carries no topographical information to act as a compass or guide. There are no landmarks, no trees or hedgerows, no features that would anchor the image to a specific place. The viewer is left wit

Creating art is a fundamental part of my identity and a way for me to express my emotions and thoughts. When I make images, I feel like I’m connecting with something deeper. This process feels like a journey, where each brushstroke or pencil mark leads to new insights and understandings. Art helps me capture the complexities of life—its beauty, chaos, and mysteries. Each piece I create represents a specific moment, emotion, or idea that interests me. Making art isn't just abo

This painting, 'Archaeology of Thought', is made in oil and cold wax medium on a cradled wooden board. It belongs to a continuing body of work concerned with landscape, climate, and sensory experience translated into paint — work that asks what it means to record a place not through description but through accumulation. The title is deliberate. Archaeology implies excavation: the careful removal of material to reveal what lies beneath. But it also implies the reverse — the sl

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' 150 x 100 cm Oil on Canvas

A landscape painting of Thetford Forest in oil and cold wax medium

I have arrived at an interpretation of the Fenlands through working with materials and actually living here and experiencing the...

Fields, Rivers and Dreams — The Fenland Landscape from Above Seen from above, the Cambridgeshire Fenlands reveal a geometry that is invisible at ground level. The dykes and drains run in straight lines across the flat terrain, dividing the land into rectangles and parallelograms of varying colour and texture. The rivers wind between them, their curves a counterpoint to the rigidity of the drainage system. From the air, the Fens look like a vast, abstract painting — a composit