About me
My name is Emily and I am founder and director of Billy Crown Art, my art business! (You can find out all about the story behind the name here!)
I am a mixed-media artist based in South East London. I have worked in London as an English and Drama teacher for over ten years and have been an artist for as long as I can remember! I have also lived in Malaysia for a couple of years and so it will come as no surprise that travelling is an important source of inspiration for my art.
My art has colour and playfulness at its core, which is why I use a variety of materials, depending on the piece I am working on, to achieve different aesthetics, textured surfaces and colour pigments. These often include a variety of paints, watercolour pencils, neocolor crayons, pastels, acrylic paint pens, different papers and printing too. I have recently entered the world of digital art and am now also developing my style through that medium too.
My art indulges follows a intuitive process, where pre-planning is minimal and trusting the creative process is everything! It has taken me many years to learn to trust the creative process and to be able to share that messy stage of the piece, where you're thinking, "I have no idea what this is!" Over the years, I have learnt to trust my intuition and my ability to spot opportunities in the moment, welcome happy accidents and lean my flow-state. This allows me to create freely and for art that has feeling to emerge.
My inspiration comes from a variety of places. It can be the colours I have chosen; the mood I am in; the environment that surrounds me; a nostalgic memory and more. More often than not, I use colour boldly and playfully, with expressions of magic, love, and an admiration of nature within the mix - the rest is for you to decide!
I deeply believe that creativity is within everyone and that to allow yourself to be creative, is to allow yourself you express and therefore be vulnerable. This is why I believe creative practice is a vital component of living a healthy and happy life, with moments of peace, compassion and understanding. In the world today, it seems we need a lot of that and so I encourage everybody to indulge themselves in whatever creative practices they enjoy - to indulge regularly, without expectation or judgement, and just with the aim to create. Subscribe to my newsletter on my homepage to stay in the loop with all thoughts and tips about living a creative life!