Emily Powell: Paris Had No Grey

"Visiting Paris was about changing my environment from the Devon countryside where I had been cocooned bringing up my first baby, into the different, beautiful world I found at my feet there.

 

Paris was so contrasting it made me paint with such raw freedom and love; love for what I could see in front of me and love what I’d left back at home. I took in every curl of the iron railings, every movement of the Parisians; they seemed so relaxed, and seeing the love of the coffee shop community talking for hours. They prioritised different things and this compelled me to paint the heart warming atmosphere, the connection, the love for life in the sky over Paris. 

 

I painted my first pink sky because it needed to be soft and beautiful, blue didn’t seem to suit Paris as it was too cold and practical. The buildings with balconies reminded me of the artists from the past and their works that I have poured over in books and galleries - they prioritised art and beauty. At times I felt like I was in a painting. Paris was enchanting, a place where I enjoyed new rituals (breakfast from the boulangerie) and absorbed the softer more emotionally centred way of life." - Emily Powell