Emily Ponsonby: A Portrait Of The Artist

Emily Ponsonby's Breakfast Exhibition - The Taster at Partridges

Next to winemaking, being an artist is perhaps the coolest, hardest way to make a living, putting self-actualization ahead of lower-hierarchy needs like food as Romantic legends would have us believe.

Reviving a now extinct, centuries-old tradition, Emily Ponsonby paints not on canvas but on beeswax.

To the untutored eye, this would not be the first thing you notice about her paintings. But somebody with knowledge of these things would perceive a depth and texture to the pictures that is achieved not by the paint itself.

For me, her pictures have a tenderness, a relaxed intimacy, the sense of a moment shared; it comes as little to surprise to learn that the subjects are friends and family.

I ask which is her favourite and she obliges me by adopting the slouched pose of her half-sleeping brother.

Emily's paintings will be adorning the walls of Partridge's throughout October before her first solo exhibition in May 2017.

Refreshments for the event were provided courtesy of Taittinger, Errazuriz and Mr Trotter's.

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