Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Emma Nalty 

BA [Hons] Art

Emma uses oil paint to illustrate scenes that she has photographed herself. She finds a lot of inspiration in cinema and aims to show motion and life within the still medium of paint. Emma has been practising professionally as an artist for the past four years, creating and selling paintings. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in the Dublin and Wicklow area such as in Signal Arts Centre in Bray (2022), DIVA in Dun Laoghaire (2022) and Pallas Projects/studios (2023). She has also been selected for the RHA Annual Open (2023).

Artist Statement

The work I am exhibiting this year focuses on people and how we can relate to each other. When making the work, I experimented with the various ways light can push you away or draw you in. The first group of paintings illustrates activities that have been done by people through time. I am interested in noting the traits we share with people in the past. I wanted the viewer’s own life experiences and memories to play a role in the work. The second group of paintings focuses on people in moments of solitude. I wanted to illustrate moments of quiet in people’s lives and the things that we do in these moments. I like to tell a story and for the paintings to allude to the motion and activity within the scene rather than just being a still image. I chose to paint the smaller accompanying paintings for this reason.