Welcome:) My name is Emma Brands, and I’m a self-taught contemporary painter based in Amsterdam.

I started painting in 2019. At that time i was living and working in Barcelona . Quite unexpectedly, It felt like something new wanted to move through me, and painting became the way to give it space. As my focus shifted more and more toward painting, my work as a chef and food stylist began to slow down. It wasn’t automatic — I had to consciously balance both, because painting was absorbing much of my attention and energy. This new direction wasn’t planned, but it felt clear that I needed to follow this path.

My work has a focus on the evolving language of figurative image-making, with recurring themes of humans, animals, memory, and the tension between interior and exterior worlds.

My practice is rooted in painting, but it often begins with questions rather than fixed ideas. Where do the images come from? Are they imagined, remembered, or drawn from the world around me? I work in varied ways: sometimes I use photographs by photographers I admire, sometimes I organize photoshoots with art models, and other times I paint entirely from imagination. This shifting approach allows me to explore how form, color, and material construct meaning—often in ways I don’t fully anticipate.

In recent months, I began making wooden frames by hand to support my paintings. What started as a practical solution gradually became part of the artwork itself. The frames took on color, shape, and character—sometimes subtle, sometimes more assertive. As I followed this development, the wooden elements started to challenge the rectangular boundary of the painting. Some works began opening up the possibility of installation or even wooden object-making.

This direction also connects to something deeply personal. In my family, there’s a long history of working with wood and with painting — my grandmother was a painter, and other relatives were furniture designers or craftsmen. In my recent work, these two lines seem to come together in a way that feels both new and rooted.

The upcoming exhibition in August will be the first time I show this part of my work.

My work remains in active development. As an autodidact, I approach the studio as a space of ongoing experimentation and discovery. I am drawn to the uncertainty of process and the possibility of image as both question and response