Emma Lineham

Emma Tells us about herself with a simple Q&A

Q1. Who is Emma Lineham?

Emma Lineham, is a London Based Artist with a journey that started in New
Zealand and has led her around the world. Passionate and captivated from
a young age by the power of female diversity and its depiction on society
inspires her to capture this story through each and every piece she creates.


Q2. Where do you get your inspiration?

Highly eccentric and distinctive women’s fashion is an extreme fascination that Emma
has always found inspiration in. A completely self-taught illustrator, her style has rapidly developed over the years, as her interest in women’s fashion stemmed so did the level of detail to her works.
Over the last few years, Emma has enjoyed distilling her style into more controversial scenes, her work aims to evoke the viewer to think and engage with the narrative – however they may wish to play it out.


Q3. Did you have any training?

Emma is completely self-taught, from a very early ages she has drawn the world as she sees it through her own lens, although her Illustrations did gain her entry into one of New Zealand’s most renown Fashion Design Schools, during these studies she felt somewhat limited and was extremely hungry for more creative freedom and international travel was the next step to find herself. So instead, she went on to discover a multicultural aspect driven by woman of the world and was able to apply this to her rapidly developing style. From this she was invited to exhibit her work in the UK, Italy, Germany, and Australia with private clients globally commissioning her for live illustrations, large murals, and one-off pieces.


Q4. How would you describe your art?

Emma’s work is modern, a figurative art that tells the stories of the world of the 21st century, with its differences, disputes, complexities. The protagonists of Emma's works are women, of every shape, orientation, religion, ethnicity, they are women in their bursting power and strength. Her work is a scream of rebellion from women who want to affirm themselves, with their needs, desires, dreams. Each piece she creates, she differentiates, each with its own story.


Q5. What artists inspire you?

The more bad and the more bold, then the more she likes it – Emma is a sucker for art that explores controversial themes. She considers many artists to be icons of her style, to name a few: Grace Jones, Nadia Cohen, Natalie Shau, Joan Cornella, Sophie Tea and Tishk Barzanji.


Q6. What does Sentiment mean to you?

Sentiment means being able completely act on your emotions and instincts, to feel them, breathe them and live them, by being completely ignorant of any profound obstacles and limitation while doing so. With action, sentiment is the feeling of power and freedom. One of my favorite quotes, which I think relates to this beautifully is – ‘sentiment without action is the ruin of your soul’