Shayle Flesser has spent a lifetime making. Collecting, observing, and pouring herself into colour and form in ways that feel less like a career choice and more like a calling.
Her studio and gallery, Emma Street Studio, is where Shayle paints original works, takes on bespoke commissions, and runs a small art production operation. Her work is abstract, emotionally charged, and unmistakably hers.
We sat down with Shayle to talk about colour obsessions, studio rhythms, and the single phrase that inspired her most recent body of work.
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Shayle Flesser lives a creative life… one that began long before the canvas
“I’ve always been making,” Shayle says. “To be honest, I think my journey began generations before me, with the women and makers in my lineage. My nana, who has now passed, and her mother before her.
“Growing up, I was the kind of child who noticed everything. I feel like I’ve always been obsessed with colour and shape and how they interact. I was a super sensitive and highly observant child, always making, collecting, and amassing trinkets and things.”
“That creative energy never really switched off. I’ve spent my life drawing, scribbling and generally defacing things! While I have been busy doing all the other things, the adulting things, there has always been a small visual diary running alongside it all.”
Her art is a practice that lives somewhere between bold and quiet
“When I’m asked to describe my work, I keep coming back to Whispers and Shouts in my mind,” she says. “Some paintings whisper. Others absolutely do not. I feel like that describes my art practice, and certainly my most recent work, perfectly.
“I feel like my work exists between instinct and restraint. Between bold, intuitive mark-making and a considered approach to colour, balance and form.
“Colour is at the heart of it all. Colour is probably my longest-running obsession. At times the palette has been intensely saturated and deliberately confrontational. Then during others, it becomes quieter, more restrained and atmospheric.
“I can become a little obsessed with one particular medium or element for months at a time. Although my paintings are abstract, the work remains connected to lived experience.
“While I am not painting people, places or things directly, the work can sometimes feel figurative. Familiar, somehow.”
To create her large scale abstracts, it’s all about instinct.
“My process is fluid and instinctive,” Shayle explains. “Sometimes I start with a selected colour palette and simply work. Other times I begin with sprayed enamel shapes on the canvas and start colouring in.
“And then sometimes, the starting point is purely emotional. It’s just a strong feeling. Like an enduring little ache from a recent sadness, sitting in my chest. And I paint on it.”
It was an absolute pleasure to spend time in Shayle Flesser‘s world. A world made of colour, questions, and a restless, generous creative spirit.
To see more of Shayle’s work and keep an eye on what she has coming, visit Emma Street Studio and follow along on her Instagram or Emma Street Studio.
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