Artists & Illustrators Magazine

Emily Ponsonby's paintings strip away everything but the essentials: skin, scars and the stories they carry. Using beeswax and oil, she sculpts fgures that  feel weathered and alive, sometimes faceless; like fragments of memory caught mid-shift. Trained in London and Edinburgh, she builds on the Ancient Egyptian encaustic technique that is shaped by a deep connection to beeswax inspired by her beekeeper father, but with a modern edge. Her Dorset studio – which is set among farm animals – provides a ftting backdrop for work that’s raw, honest and arresting. Emily’s art has been shown in solo exhibitions at J/M Gallery and group shows at Rhodes Contemporary in London. Notably, her painting Chewing The Cud was selected for the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery; a signifcant milestone in her career. Through her unique process and evocative subject matter, the artist invites viewers to engage with the human form in its most authentic state: unadorned, unfiltered and undeniably human.