• CROSSING PATHS: A GALLERY EXCHANGE
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    • An Autumn Afternoon
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    • StARTing the new year with a bang
    • The Originals - The Gang is Back
    • Guest Artist Col Ritchie - Dogwood
    • Love Stories Group Show
    • Seasons Duo - Monique Storey + Lyn Michie
    • Marilou Palazon - Untamed
    • Kirsty Gautheron - Reverence
    • Solo show- Fiona Chandler
    • Paper & Ink Guest Artist Printmaking Show
    • 7th bday - Mini Show 2024
    • Helen Proctor - Storm Chaser
    • Misha Harrison - Floral Fusion
    • Joan Blond - Colour is Life
    • Anna Price - Beach Lyfe
    • Reuse - Group Show
    • Nanda Nasser - In the Beginning
    • Emergence
    • Black & White 2024
    • Celebrate 2024
    • Stockroom 2024
    • Deck the Walls 2023
    • Solo Show Mitchell English
    • All Figured Out
    • Misha Harrison - WALLFLOWER
    • Spring Show 2023
    • Kirsty Gautheron - Connections: Land Sea Sky
    • Marilou Palazon - Release
    • Colour Block
    • In The Frame 2023 Guest Artists Group Show
    • Spotlight Group Show, Second Room
    • 6th Birthday Show 2023
    • Interplay - Cassandra Ng + Marie Schlederer
    • Monique Storey - What The Tide Brings in
    • Joan Blond Solo - Reflective Journey
    • Art & Word
    • Summer Group Show 2023
    • David Wiggs Solo 2023
    • Deck the walls Christmas Show 2022
    • Still Life - Group Exhibition 2022
    • Marilou Palazon - Unfurled
    • Ben Waters - Landscape Within
    • Fiona Chandler - A Great Balancing Act
    • Making the show - Fiona Chandler
    • Colour Fields by Marie Schlederer
    • Studio Select - Group Show
    • Small Wonders Group Show
    • In The Frame 2022 Guest Artist Group Show
    • 2022 5th Birthday Show
    • Amanda Tye - Pink Antidote
    • Current Group Exhibition
    • Misha Harrison - Material Bloom
    • Kylie Sirret Home
    • Ben Lucas - Under the Same Sky
    • Ben Lucas Walkthrough
    • ARTW**K2022
    • Artist’s Spotlight
    • Summer Show 2022
    • New Narratives - Group Show 2021
    • Jessica Watts - In The Raw Walkthrough
    • Jessica Watts - In The Raw
    • Ben Waters - Sense of place
    • A Sense of Place - walkthrough
    • Marilou Palazon - ETHEREAL
    • Ethereal Walkthrough Video
    • Fiona Chandler - I Know that Rock
    • I Know that Rock - exhibition viewing
    • Small Wonders
    • Together Alone
    • Birthday Show
    • Birthday Show Video Tour
    • June Group Show
    • Daniel Breda - Floor is Lava
    • Gail Affleck _ The Journey Home
    • May Group Show
    • Ben Lucas - La Niña Blues
    • In The Frame - 2021 Guest Artists Group Show
    • ArtW**k
    • Sculpture by the Marina
    • New Beginnings -Feb 2021
    • Summer Annual 2020
    • November Group Show
    • Misha Harrison - Piece By Piece
    • Still Life
    • September Group Show
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Sydney Road Gallery

FIND US AT: 451 SYDNEY ROAD BALGOWLAH. GALLERY HOURS: THURSDAY to SATURDAY 10-4PM & SUNDAY 10-2PM
  • Current Exhibitions
    • CROSSING PATHS: A GALLERY EXCHANGE
    • Second Show
    • STOCK ROOM
  • PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS
    • Nightminds
    • An Autumn Afternoon
    • Sun. Shade. Soul. Katie Firth & Leigh Vardanega
    • StARTing the new year with a bang
    • The Originals - The Gang is Back
    • Guest Artist Col Ritchie - Dogwood
    • Love Stories Group Show
    • Seasons Duo - Monique Storey + Lyn Michie
    • Marilou Palazon - Untamed
    • Kirsty Gautheron - Reverence
    • Solo show- Fiona Chandler
    • Paper & Ink Guest Artist Printmaking Show
    • 7th bday - Mini Show 2024
    • Helen Proctor - Storm Chaser
    • Misha Harrison - Floral Fusion
    • Joan Blond - Colour is Life
    • Anna Price - Beach Lyfe
    • Reuse - Group Show
    • Nanda Nasser - In the Beginning
    • Emergence
    • Black & White 2024
    • Celebrate 2024
    • Stockroom 2024
    • Deck the Walls 2023
    • Solo Show Mitchell English
    • All Figured Out
    • Misha Harrison - WALLFLOWER
    • Spring Show 2023
    • Kirsty Gautheron - Connections: Land Sea Sky
    • Marilou Palazon - Release
    • Colour Block
    • In The Frame 2023 Guest Artists Group Show
    • Spotlight Group Show, Second Room
    • 6th Birthday Show 2023
    • Interplay - Cassandra Ng + Marie Schlederer
    • Monique Storey - What The Tide Brings in
    • Joan Blond Solo - Reflective Journey
    • Art & Word
    • Summer Group Show 2023
    • David Wiggs Solo 2023
    • Deck the walls Christmas Show 2022
    • Still Life - Group Exhibition 2022
    • Marilou Palazon - Unfurled
    • Ben Waters - Landscape Within
    • Fiona Chandler - A Great Balancing Act
    • Making the show - Fiona Chandler
    • Colour Fields by Marie Schlederer
    • Studio Select - Group Show
    • Small Wonders Group Show
    • In The Frame 2022 Guest Artist Group Show
    • 2022 5th Birthday Show
    • Amanda Tye - Pink Antidote
    • Current Group Exhibition
    • Misha Harrison - Material Bloom
    • Kylie Sirret Home
    • Ben Lucas - Under the Same Sky
    • Ben Lucas Walkthrough
    • ARTW**K2022
    • Artist’s Spotlight
    • Summer Show 2022
    • New Narratives - Group Show 2021
    • Jessica Watts - In The Raw Walkthrough
    • Jessica Watts - In The Raw
    • Ben Waters - Sense of place
    • A Sense of Place - walkthrough
    • Marilou Palazon - ETHEREAL
    • Ethereal Walkthrough Video
    • Fiona Chandler - I Know that Rock
    • I Know that Rock - exhibition viewing
    • Small Wonders
    • Together Alone
    • Birthday Show
    • Birthday Show Video Tour
    • June Group Show
    • Daniel Breda - Floor is Lava
    • Gail Affleck _ The Journey Home
    • May Group Show
    • Ben Lucas - La Niña Blues
    • In The Frame - 2021 Guest Artists Group Show
    • ArtW**k
    • Sculpture by the Marina
    • New Beginnings -Feb 2021
    • Summer Annual 2020
    • November Group Show
    • Misha Harrison - Piece By Piece
    • Still Life
    • September Group Show
    • Girt By Sea - Fiona Chandler
    • August Group Show
    • STOP… and Smell the Roses.
    • WORKS ON PAPER
    • WORKS FROM ISOLATION
    • BLACK AND WHITE
    • PAST SHOWS
  • Artists
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Q&A with Emma McNamara

July 9, 2021

Who are you and what do you do?

Hello I’m Emma McNamara, I’m a landscape painter, sometimes they verge on abstracts.

What’s your background?

In my former life, I was an Interior Designer and Textile Designer. Composition, colour and line have always been hugely important in my work and this has translated into my art practice. I spent my early life in regional country NSW, and I have an innate sense of this landscape. My sense of contrast between rural and urban sensibilities translates through my use of colour and mark-making, the sense of light in my pieces and importantly the composition. Composition is so important as it is truly dictates how you experience a piece. Mark-making is also central to my work- both in the painterly lines and the oil stick marks- they are the emotion and the sensory part of the landscapes.

How do you work?

My landscapes are painted from memories & studies created whilst working en-plein air. Studies are vital to my practice - they are like the road-map of sorts. Colour, composition and the tone of the piece are all worked out through studies. Having said that, the final piece is very much it’s own realised work, and can often differ immensely from the study- pieces do take on a life of their own and you never know what a smudgy line is going to do, or what the work will call for. I try to follow the map, but the road - the canvas in front of me, is always right.

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Artworks featured in Sydney Road Gallery
Left: Dancing Gums | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Framed in Grove | 50 x 50 cm | $545 |
More Info
Right: Turon River Gums | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Framed in Grove | 51 x 61 cm | $595 |
More info


What themes does your art pursue?

Every landscape has a resonance, a feeling and a presence. My landscapes are sensory reflections of place. Humans are deeply connected to the energy of the landscape, whether we realise it or not. My pieces serve as echos of memory to help us remember our interconnected relationship with the land.
 

What’s your favourite art work?

I can’t pick one! My favourite artists- who create art I feel most connected to - are Catherine Cassidy, Elisabeth Cummings & Charlie Sheard. Their pieces have an energy that is immersive!

Name something you love, and why.

Travelling! There is nothing more exciting than discovering new places, new vistas, meeting people who live differently to you and eating great food from somewhere you have always wanted to go.

What is your preferred medium to work with?

Acrylic and oil. Oil sticks are so much fun and can convey such emotion.

Bluebark Country | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Framed in Grove | 31 x 40 cm | $380 | More info

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FIND US AT: 451 SYDNEY ROAD, BALGOWLAH, 2093, N.S.W AUSTRALIA. Instagram: @sydneyroadgallery
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