London based, Emily Finch is a quiet dendrophile — a painter whose devotion to trees runs like a root system through everything she produces. There is something deeply sylvan about her sensibility; her oil paintings occupy a liminal space between figuration and reverie, where trunks, branches and the spaces between them are pared back until they become carriers of feeling no less than literal description.
Born in Wiltshire, Finch’s early encounters with open landscape instilled a lasting reverence for trees as markers of time and continuity. These childhood impressions recur in her work as a stabilising force: trees are both witness and refuge, steadfast amid change. Finch’s painting practice—developed as a form of personal therapy—responds to lived experience, including recovery from PTSD and the emotional consequences of disability. The process she has refined emphasises layered, restrained colour and a softened handling of form that allows memory and sensation to surface within an ostensibly simple composition.
Finch studied politics at Durham University before a career that moved through the corporate sector into television. Throughout these shifts she continued to paint, translating complex internal states into compositions that are at once contemplative and quietly immediate. Since her first exhibition Finch has been shown and collected internationally and maintains an active commission practice. She continues to investigate the therapeutic potential of painting—both for herself and for viewers—seeking work that offers solace, memory and an invitation to pause.
Discover her artwork in more detail here.
We are delighted to welcome Emily Finch to the Artists Appreciation Initiative.
