Gulf News, 6 March 2025
KO NGA MAHI TOI / THE ARTS

Flowers, impermanence and digital drama: the art of Margaret Emsley

Waiheke artist Margaret Emsley has recently joined the artist-run Space Gallery in Oneroa. With a fine arts degree from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, Margaret has enjoyed many years of success as a painter. Known for her meticulous botanical studies Margaret won the 2020 Michael Evans Award for a figurative work at the Walker and Hall Art Awards and the Zinni Douglas Merit Award and People’s Choice Award at the Walker and Hall Art Awards in 2022.

Margaret grew up in a household where art-making was actively encouraged. Her father’s work can be found in most public collections in South Africa, the National Portrait Gallery in London and the British Museum. Her brother and aunt are also established artists. “We’d have family holidays and we’d always go out hiking in nature and my dad, from when we were very little, would give us things to draw. We’d do watercolours at the beach and that kind of thing, so it was very much a part of life growing up.” It’s a pattern that she and her husband have established with their own children, hiking around New Zealand and sketching in the outdoors.

Margaret explains that she photographs flower subjects for her drawings and paintings at different stages in their short lifespans as well as at different angles in the light. “I then digitally deconstruct the flower, stems and leaves and then reconstruct them, exaggerating and combining elements. My paintings and drawings typically take about a month to six weeks to complete. It takes time to build up the intensity and detail. I don’t produce many paintings in a year but I have recently started getting them made into prints.” Margaret described how her brother and father would spend hours adjusting the lighting and camera settings in order to take perfect images for painting that were wonderful photographs in their own right. Her process is different in that her flower images are often reconstructed in Photoshop.
“It’s all about dissecting the parts. I’ll take the stem away from the flower. I’ll take a leaf away from the stem. I’ll say ‘I want that petal’ or I’ll double up the petals or take them from an earlier version of the flower. It can take a week sometimes putting an image together in Photoshop prior to painting.” Bending and warping elements of the flowers to create dreams allows Margaret to create new images that, while bearing a resemblance to her referent images, are unique in their form. In this sense her work sits within what has been described as a ‘post-medium condition’.

The 1970s and 1980s were an era when many believed painting had exhausted its potential. However, innovative artists breathed new life into the medium by incorporating photography and digital techniques. These pioneers forged a new path, creating hybrid artworks that blended traditional painting with emerging technologies. Their efforts redefined the boundaries of art, positioning their creations at the intersection of multiple mediums and rejuvenating painting in the process.

Margaret’s flowers are sourced from Waiheke’s Nourish Gardens based in Owhanake Bay, and her preference is for flowers that are past their prime. “I love all the imperfections and scarring. It’s about not erasing and touching things that are worn out. It’s a way of thinking that we are all part of a much bigger picture, that we are all part of that energy. I often find when I think about these things it takes me out of myself. I think we tend to be so into our problems it’s very therapeutic. Of course I love the forms of the flowers and love to spend hours at the easel.”

Margaret sees flowers as symbols of impermanence and insects as symbols of transformation. “They remind us of constant change,” she said.
The charcoal medium allows me to explore the tension of opposites: light and shadow and internal and external self. Lately I have been influenced by the early botanical artists who would sometimes deconstruct the flower, stem and leaves in order to portray each of its parts.” Often in the work of early botanical artists their proportions were distorted and forms were exaggerated.

Originals and limited-edition fine art giclée prints of Margaret’s work are available for purchase at Space Gallery, 114 Ocean View Road.