About Me

Hey, I'm Emma.  Thank you so much for taking time to visit my website.

My art career began in 2017 when I struggled with a leg injury which resulted in  giving up my job as a rock-climbing instructor.  I needed to find another way of earning money so decided to reignite my long lost love of art.

This time was very challenging for me as I also couldn't run and I've been a competitive runner my whole life. Wanting to still be connected to running I committed my time to illustrating a children's book about my run across Africa.

After three years of working on the book, The Girl Who Ran Across Africa was finally launched in November 2020.  I wrote, illustrated and published the book myself which took a lot of determination but was definitely worth it.

  

I finally returned to running after an operation in 2019, I set my heart on a goal I had years before.  I wanted to set a new record for running the length of Aotearoa, New Zealand.  At the beginning of 2022, I arrived in Bluff after leaving Cape Reinga 21 days earlier taking two weeks off the previous New Zealand record.

In 2023, I set another new world record for the furthest distance run on a treadmill in 48 hours, completing 340.36km.

Creating my detailed pencil drawings is very similar to the huge physical challenges I tackle.  At the beginning, it can seem quite overwhelming and staring at a blank canvas can be quite daunting.  But as soon as the first few marks are made on the paper, or the training begins, things start to fall into place.  Momentum builds and before you know it the artwork is complete or the challenge finished!

In 2022, I entered my first exhibition.  It was daunting putting my work out for everyone to see and judge but a great experience to learn from other artists. On the opening night various awards were announced and I was blown away to find out I'd won the award for Bird Art at the Kaiapoi Art Expo.