Art for Mental Health: Unleashing Creativity in UK Schools
Along with running my art business, I have been busy volunteering and visiting schools to promote the peaceful practice of pastel art for our primary school students.
Emma Hunt
Unison Colour Associate Artist
Unison Colour welcomes Emma Hunt as an Associate Artist
Emma Hunt grew up in a single parent family in industrial West Cumbria. She knew she had a talent for art but also that for a working class teenager in Whitehaven there was no living to be made from it. She trained as a radio-chemist at Sellafield and later moved into accounts. Following her diagnosis with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is a degenerative condition affecting the collagen in her body, she returned to painting as a way of pain and mental health management. She discovered there was quite an interest in her predominantly pastel Cumbrian landscapes and developed a large social media following. Commercial commissions followed rapidly.
During the COVID lockdown she began delivering online workshops for Women Out West, a West Cumbrian charity who provide support for women who have suffered or are suffering domestic abuse and also with women in the criminal justice system. She then began streaming her classes on Facebook allowing the general population to join in.
Emma’s joyfulness and passion is tangible within her work. She captures the beautiful landscapes and seascapes of the Lakes and West Cumbria but also embues them with an emotional authenticity that is unmistakably her. There is no pretence or pretention with Emma or with her art – what you see is what you get. She has also returned to her love of writing poetry and creating music to compliment her visual work.
In recent months, and whilst continuing to paint, licence her art and teach, she has also been busy curating exhibitions for venues in Maryport and Whitehaven, with plans for more, offering opportunities for new and emerging artists to develop their practices and create an income from them in West Cumbria.
Blog posts relating to Emma Hunt
Pastels for Pain – Where it all Began
When I first picked up a pastel after years of aggressive pain medications, I quickly realised that all I really needed was my faculties back and a beautiful distraction.
Associate Artist Intake for 2022
It seems a while ago since we asked for applications from artists to become an Associate Artists & wow the applications came in thick & fast. So much so it took our Unison Helen a good while to get through them all.