Emily Andrews

Emily Andrews’ work moves through a quiet tension between control and release.

There’s a careful attention to shadow and detail, but also a growing willingness to let things fall slightly out of place, allowing a piece to become something other than what was first imagined.

Her paintings carry a sense of nostalgia, often paired with something more curious and unsettled. There’s subtle humour in the work too. It slips in quietly, something you notice after spending a bit of time with it, when the image begins to tilt just slightly.

Andrews approaches painting as a kind of problem solving. Each piece needs to offer some resistance, something that pushes back. Without that challenge, the work doesn’t hold her attention.

Lately, she’s been unlearning the need for perfection, letting flaws remain and letting the work speak in ways she didn’t plan. It’s a process grounded as much in instinct as it is in discipline.

There’s a small note she wrote to herself years ago that she still returns to: stop being afraid to paint, weirdo.

It reads less like a joke and more like permission, to begin, to risk, to keep going.