In the Studio with Emma Corcoran, Blue Day Designs

Tell us about yourself: I live on a small farm in southern Australia, a few hours from Melbourne. My professional background is in music – I used to work as a piano teacher, and accompanist. I’ve always been into art and craft; everything from dried flower arrangements to cross-stitch.

I make large spray-painted children’s portraits and teeny-tiny mini portraits. I also make the Mini Da Vinci – your child’s art on its own tiny canvas and easel. My latest idea is doing stenciled artwork of children;s handwriting. It looks pretty cool – quite abstract. At the moment I’m working on a big artwork using my brother’s handwriting as a child.

Did you gain formal training? No, I was always terrible at drawing and art. Then, about ten years ago, I shared a house with a woman who was an artist. “Everyone can learn to draw,” she told me. “Not me!” I said. “I can’t even draw a tree.” After a few weeks, she proved me wrong – my first drawing was a portrait of Tracy Chapman. I was amazed to find out that drawing was a bit like playing the piano; not everyone is going to be a Mozart or Beethoven, but, with perseverance, everyone can learn to be pretty good!

Tell us about your studio? I have a little studio in a bungalow out the back of my house where I do my spray-painting. It’s pretty cool – although the yellow/orange flowery carpet is very 1970’s and kind of hurts my eyes.

What types of materials do you use? What material/supply/tool can you not live without? To make my stencils I do the design on photoshop. Then, I cut the design out of acetate (plastic), and use spray-paints to spray it onto canvas. I’d say, after spending half this week in my tiny studio spraying, that my most important tool is my face mask. (Spraypaint fumes aren’t so nice…)

Do you have set studio hours? Nope…no schedule!

Where do you sell your work? On Etsy supermarket and locally in my area through word of mouth.

Why buy handmade? I love buying handmade because I know that no-one was exploited in the making of the item. I really dislike buying items that I think may have been made in some Chinese factory.

Is there anything else you would like to share? I’d like to say how much I love doing children’s portraits because I think that it’s lovely to produce something that makes children feel special. Having a portrait of a child up on a wall can really make a child feel valued.

I also like making my Mini Da Vincis for the same reason – children feel so valued when someone takes artwork they’ve created and puts it on a little easel.