curtayne.co.uk

Location: Brighton, UK
Email: emma@curtayne.co.uk

About

Emma Curtayne (Northern Irish, b. 1969) began her career as a colourist for the Rosie and Jim series of children's books in the early 1990's, at a time when pure illustration had given way to computer art and watercolour continued to be seen as medium for 'twee' renditions. A graduate of Brighton University in the South of England, she began by exploiting the simplicity of watercolour in advertising work for local small businesses. This developed into requests for illustrative house portraits of local properties in Sussex and throughout England and Ireland.

To compliment her illustrations of buildings, Curtayne regularly takes part in Phoenix House open Life Drawing sessions in Brighton. She also attends Draw, a drawing collective which exhibits as part of the May Festival in Brighton.

Curtayne completed a course in Fashion Illustration at Central St. Martins, the London College of Fashion - the immediacy of producing images in the minutes it takes a model to complete the runway is perfectly suited to her drawing skills as a painter. Her fashion work is emotive, suggestive and fluid - and combines her love of clothes with her expert manipulation of paint and water. Her inspiration comes from Anish Kapoor's paintings, Emil Noldes watercolours, Mats Gustafson's fashion illustrations and the portraits of Marlene Dumas.