Emily Tull: From conception to creation

The delicate but haunting imagery in Emily Tull’s portraits expertly depicts the fragility of life. Layers of fine fabric are embroidered over with a worn, frayed effect of sketchy stitching.

Her work “A Conversation with Death” was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, intertwined with the personal story of the portrait sitter. The subject matter guided her in the select of dark and sumptuous fabrics to layer up the piece.

She is obsessed with faces and how they show the passing of time, keen on showing the fragility of flesh through her thread colour choices and stitching. From her use of fabric layering and stitched mark-making, her work grows into semi-abstract faces with a sense of mystery hidden behind.

Emily Tull won the Visual Arts (Non-Digital) section of the Kent Creative Awards in 2017. She is a co-founder of the Society for Embroidered Work, which promotes contemporary stitch artists. She was a contestant on Sky Arts Portrait Of The Year (2014) and a finalist in the Winter Pride Art Awards (2016). She exhibits across the UK and internationally including at the Mall Galleries (2018), Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2014) and the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize Exhibition (2015).