Emilie Mae is an American abstract painter living and working in Vancouver. Drawing on the tradition of Abstract Expressionism, Mae uses palette knives and material texture to create energetic compositions from intuitive, painterly gesture.
Technique, environment, and concept work in tandem toward the artist’s expressive style. For Mae, the draw of the palette knife is its insistence on the confidence of its wielder: each application of paint builds to rhythmic intensity; each stroke must be bold and considered. The artist’s abstractions marry the seemingly incompatible palettes associated with her experience of living in three radically different locales: Vancouver, Detroit, and Kauai, Hawaii, where she first began experimenting with a palette knife. Working en plein air in Hawaii formed a foundation for Mae’s playful twists
