ABOUT
“I totally immerse myself in the experience of painting and as I do, I am connecting with love, joy, and peace. I have a need to understand who I am and the people in my life. My paintings have a whimsical state of mind because I am expressing music into my artwork. I choose the instruments of color and set the rhythm of texture that will sing the emotions the painting will express. I endeavor to make intangible experiences tangible through my art; to make the soundless, resound; the flavorless an explosion of taste, and the invisible seen. There is healing for me in this process and through my art I hope there is some healing for the observer as well.” -Isabel Emrich
Isabel Emrich works in an Expressionistic style that straddles both abstraction and figuration. Her brushwork is both strong and fluid – qualities that echo the nature of water, itself. With zeal, Emrich captures the ‘special effects’ water presents to the eye: chaotic refractions in multi-planar space, sparkling light effects, distorted shadows, rippled reflections, etc. – much of it in thick impasto paint, contrasted by passages of smooth vitality.
The artist explores the sensations of peace and calm one feels submerged in water, the dynamism of moving through water, and of the body luxuriantly enveloped in it. A subject’s body may float freely in a pose of complete relief, but the subject’s face and limbs blur with the airy world above, as they break the surface. Isabel explores the dynamics of this boundary with tension and interplay at work – where air and water and light and body converge. Light plays on the surface, reflecting, dancing in endlessly fascinating patterns. But it also passes through the water, illuminating what is beneath, bringing out the color and life of the body. Different colors ‘pop’ through the light with the changing visuals implied in a moment’s time. Indeed, being in water is one of most explicit examples one can imagine of ‘being in the moment.’ Time stands still, and once and for all the past and future disappears. Zen-like, one is in the here and now.
Emrich forged her connection to the water growing up in Southern California. She loved the feeling of the cold salty ocean, and being under its big waves. Isabel offers a special debt of gratitude to her grandmother, who often took her up on the cliffs overlooking the water to plein-air paint. “Just paint what you see,” her grandmother would tell her, taking after the French Impressionists of yore.
Isabel brings her paintings to life with broad, energetic brush strokes, thick and thin paint qualities, and generous color variety – all hallmarks of Expressionism. In fact, one of her main inspirations is the expressionistic master Van Gogh.
READ ISABEL’S MFA THESIS
Exhibitions
2019
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Q Art Salon, Visual Conversations, Santa Ana, CA
Laguna Art Museum, Merging Masters, Laguna Beach, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Art Market, San Francisco, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Chapman University, Cross Culture, Womxn Her Story, Anaheim, CA
2018
Texas Art Market, TX
Trabec Hall, AZ
Laguna City Hall, Laguna College of Art + Design, Laguna Beach, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Art Market, San Francisco, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA
Skidmore Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Skidmore Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA
Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
2014
Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
Awards
2016
2nd place Abstract painting, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
Body of Work, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
2015
Fantasy Head Sculpture, “Roaring Lion”, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
2014
1st Place Female Torso Sculpture, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
Publications
2018 ELLE France Magazine, Van Gogh Article, August Issue
2017 Southwest Art Magazine, September Issue
Education
2017-2019 Masters of Fine Arts, Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA
2013-2016 Bachelors of Fine Arts, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
2015 Plein Air Painting Study Abroad, Florence, Italy
2011-2013 Orange Coast Community College, Costa Mesa, CA
Born
Irvine, California, September 4, 1993
Represented by
Skidmore Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA
Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Experience
2019
Teach private painting lessons
Teaching Assistance for Sculpture Fundamentals Figure and Portraiture class at Laguna College Art + Design, Laguna Beach, CA
2018
Teachers Assistance for Painting in an environment for Carl Dobsky at Laguna College of Art + Design, Laguna Beach, CA
Hosted Long Pose Life Drawing, Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA
2017
Teachers Assistance for Painting Portraiture for Joseph Todorovitch, Laguna College of Art + Design, Laguna Beach, CA
2017-Present
Private Art lessons, CA
2013-2015
Studio Assistant to Painter Amy Nelder
Work Gallery events, Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA