Emma Hopkins RP Artist Spotlight
/ Royal Society of Portrait Painters
We spoke to Emma Hopkins, one of the younger members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, about her work that was featured in the recent Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023, and about her artistic practice more broadly. Whilst the exhibition has closed, you are still able to view the work online.
You studied Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance, how has this influenced your artistic practice and your knowledge of anatomy and the human form?
During my studies I needed to understand the foundational structures that the translucent layers of skin would adorn as I was taught how to make life like body parts. I would cast bodies, sculpt bodies, attach prosthetics to bodies and then go home and paint them for myself. It is impossible to separate the influence that this training had on my work. I was trained to construct bodies from the bones up and that’s still how I see my subjects now.
Emma Hopkins in her studio.
You often incorporate darker or more graphic depictions in your work with immersive, honest yet sometimes fantastical elements - where does your desire to capture this come from?
I have always seen my art as a form of therapy - it is a tool that I use to explore the world around me and within me. There are often emotions or subjects that I feel a resolve to when I see them reflected back at me through my work. I am also playful in nature and I have a lot of fun when I see an element of the unusual seep through.
Emma Hopkins, Anji and Brian, 122 x 76 cm
Your works in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Annual Exhibition are of Anji and Brian. What is your relationship to the sitters and what were you hoping to capture and convey in your depiction of the couple?
Anji and Brian are friends of mine, a married couple and both artists. I asked them if I could paint them because I find them and their relationship interesting. I wanted to convey the strong bond that they have as partners whilst also portraying their own individual characters. I have to admit too, that I wanted to explore the inevitable push and pull of power that comes into an intimate relationship.
Your work captures very raw and tender emotions, which is particularly apparent in the piece ‘Anji and Brian (Study)’. How do you go about doing this and do you think this partly comes from your choice to exclusively paint nude portraits?
There is no visible nudity in the Anji and Brian study so I wouldn’t say it comes from that. We express our emotions through our body language and our facial expressions regardless of whether or not they are clothed. The placement and the expression of the hands and faces tell us a conflicting story in this piece, as does the technique used in its creation. There is a closed eyed kiss and delicate hand, but also a firmly clasped fist and a powerful gaze straight out of the picture. The piece began with using charcoal mixed with water, an unpredictable combination that is not easily tamed, brought together with pencils and paint, in a technique that starts out fast, frantic and expressive and is finished with precise and deliberate precision.
I find a lot of satisfaction in combining opposite emotions with strength and vulnerability because that feels like a true depiction of human nature.
