Alex Emsley is fascinated by the technical aspects of painting. He immerses himself in the obscure procedures that painters use to create convincing illusions in paint. Because of his fixation on the technical, one could argue that he, and other painters like him, veer dangerously close to being “craftsmen” rather than “artists”. Emsley seems to accept the title of “craftsman” without objection. He admits to being smitten with the craft-like aspects of naturalistic painting. He re-explores the empirical techniques that painters have used for centuries, usually within the still life genre. His compositions consist of simple arrangements of objects, depicted in excessive detail. He works from photographic sources, each painting based on close to one-hundred photographs. These works are known to take many months, and his output is limited to a few paintings per year.
