Emma Howell

Artist Biography

Emma Howell is a British painter and creative strategist based in the Cotswolds. She works across still life, landscape, and abstract expressionism to explore memory, longing, healing, and human connection. Her paintings capture everyday moments – from candid café scenes or a solitary chair, to textured Cotswold hills, to abstract marks that evoke emotion. A deep navy might recall a quiet memory or the colour of a gentleman’s jacket, while an earthy green could be a worn road sign or a rolling hill. Through her work, Emma invites viewers to slow down and feel the layers beneath the surface.

After losing her father in 2016, Emma’s art became a way to process grief and connect more deeply with the ordinary. Themes of motherhood, infertility, and solitude quietly inform her practice. Emma holds a First Class BA in Fine Art from the University of Gloucestershire and has exhibited and sold work internationally across Europe, North America, Australia, and the Seychelles. She lives in the Cotswolds with her husband Jonathan, daughter Lilah, and their Golden Retriever, Gibson.

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Artist Statement

For me, it’s innate. Like another sense. Painting is how I process life as it happens. It is my second language, an extension of how I think, feel, and move through the world.

My hands and mind work together in response to the life season I am in. What I paint is usually a response to experience, through mark making, colour, and movement. Sometimes that becomes abstract work, shaped by raw emotion and creative rhythm. Other times it becomes still life or landscape, often linked to memory, travel, or observation. The themes shift, but the starting point does not: I paint what I need to.

My current practice is shaped by early motherhood, and by the loss of my dad ten years ago. Earlier experiences of infertility, false hope and waiting also hide beneath the surface of it all. These are not separate ideas in the work, but part of how I respond to everything.

Painting is how I keep up with life and its intensity, as it is happening.. without needing to fully resolve or explain it. It is instinct, process, and response working together on a surface.

Open your mind and take my hand.

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Beyond The Canvas: Creative Consultancy

Alongside her painting practice, Emma also works as a creative strategist – helping early-stage business owners, makers, and creatives shape the visual and emotional heart (and soul) of their brand. Whether you’re unsure where to begin, struggling to express what your business feels like, or simply craving clarity, Emma offers intuitive, visually-led guidance to bring your ideas into focus. She helps clients uncover their brand’s colourways, build a visual language, and shape a cohesive identity that actually feels like them.

This offering is ideal for those at the very beginning – where things feel messy, uncertain, or “not quite right.” Through conversation, mood-boarding, colour theory, and soul discovery, Emma helps you clear the fog and start building something beautiful. Enquire

Artist’s CV

Education

2015

BA Fine Art – First Class Honours

University of Gloucestershire

Gallery Representation & Exhibitions

2026

TBC – Solo Show at Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham UK (September)

2025

The White Gallery – The Cotswolds, UK

2024

Soul – Solo Show at Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham, UK

2023

Wonder – Selected Group Exhibition at The Sanctuary Gallery, Newnham, UK

2022

New Terrain – Solo Show at Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham, UK

The Landscape – Selected Group Exhibition at Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham, UK

2019

Fragile Nature – Selected Group Exhibition at Groundwork Gallery, Kings Lynn, UK

2018

Homegrown – Cheltenham, UK / Sponsored by Hobbycraft

2015

ArtVenture Recent Graduates Exhibition, Cirencester, UK

Free Range Art & Design Show, London, UK

University of Gloucestershire Degree Show, Cheltenham, UK

Continuum Show, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK

2014

Hans Brinker Budget Trophy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Awards & Recognition

2025

Original piece “Rousseau’s Tale: Talking About You” – one of 50 artworks selected by expert panel of judges out of over 700 submissions – Artist Open Call Exhibition at Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham.

2019

Cotswold Painter of the Year 2019 – Nominee

Cotswold Artist of the Year 2019 – Nominee

2014

University of Gloucestershire: Travel Award to Washington, D.C.

University of Gloucestershire: International Exhibition Opportunity in Amsterdam

2013

University of Gloucestershire: PJ Crook Award