Florilegium: Emily Filler

Emily Filler is a collector – of patterns, colours, images and natural textures. 

In a process she describes as ‘painterly collage’, Filler's gathering eye and hand are strongly present in each canvas. Precise dotting and checkered borders are juxtaposed with photographic transfers of herbaceous tendrils, blocks of primary colour and whitewashed backdrops, layered behind groups of bright gestural blooms and stencilled leaves.

Filler’s work relies heavily on the act of removal, scraping back layers of paint that have been steadily built up, bringing hints of new colour to the surface. This process of retrospection moves the painting forward just as Filler is looking backwards.

The contrast of precision and pattern with spontaneity only makes the clusters of wild flowers appear all the more free. And yet, by incorporating fragments of antique photographs, there is a sense of nostalgia in each arrangement. As Filler’s collected references are anchored in the stability of memory, each painting reveals a reading of the natural world influenced by many places and times.