By The Green Room Journal

She was supposed to study interior design in London. Then the world shut down, her plans changed, and one painting for her sister set an entirely different career in motion.

Emma Sheehan never really planned on becoming a painter.

Art had always been part of her world. She completed a Master’s in Art Curating in 2018 and had been drawn to the industry for years. But she imagined herself somewhere else within it, not necessarily standing in a studio making the work herself.

“I’ve always felt really drawn to the art world,” she says. “I did a Master’s in Art Curating in 2018, but I never really imagined I’d end up on this side of the industry.”

And she very nearly didn’t.

Sheehan had already learned a little about following an unexpected path. After finishing her master’s degree, she moved from Australia to Colorado and spent two years working on a ranch. She helped organize the ranch’s annual art show, learned to ride horses, worked in its leather shop and pitched in wherever she was needed. She credits that time with giving her a more optimistic outlook and making her more willing to say yes to new opportunities, even when she didn’t know exactly where they might lead.

Emma Sheehan during her time working on a ranch in Colorado.

In 2020, Sheehan had been accepted into an interior design program in London and was preparing to move overseas when COVID changed the plan. The school closed, her flight was cancelled, and the future she had mapped out suddenly came to a halt.

While she waited to see what would happen next, her sister was working on a guest house and asked if Sheehan would create a painting for the dining room.

Something colorful. Something inviting. Preferably a tablescape.

Sheehan picked up a paintbrush.

What happened next turned a temporary creative experiment into a career.

One Painting, Then Six More

The finished tablescape was hung in her sister’s guest house, and Sheehan shared an image of it on Instagram.

A gallery owner saw the work and got in touch.

Sheehan was asked if she would create additional paintings for the gallery to sell. She agreed, producing six works over the following months while continuing to work part-time and study interior design remotely.

All six paintings sold within a week.

Soon, another opportunity arrived. A gallery in Sydney invited Sheehan to create ten works for an upcoming group exhibition.

That exhibition sold out on opening night.

At that point, it was becoming pretty clear that painting wasn’t just a temporary detour.

“It all started pretty unexpectedly during COVID, when I painted something for my sister’s guest house she was doing up,” Sheehan says. “A gallery saw it, and things kind of snowballed from there.”

Nearly six years later, she is still creating work for the galleries that took a chance on her early in her career, and painting is no longer the thing she happened upon while waiting for another plan to work out.

It is the plan.

Papaya and Peaches on Pink, acrylic on canvas in an oak floating frame, 120 × 90 cm.

The Education That Followed Her Into the Studio

London may not have happened as Sheehan originally imagined, but interior design still found its way into her work.

She continued her studies remotely, learning about color theory, pattern mixing and the relationship between art and interiors.

Looking at her paintings now, the connection is hard to miss.

Her work is packed with color and pattern. Plates, fruit, florals and foliage fill her paintings, layered together in combinations that somehow just work.

Color, especially, has become central to the way she thinks about painting.

“I love seeing how different combinations can completely change a piece’s feeling,” she says. “Pattern is the same. It brings so much life and movement into the work.”

She may not have ended up working in interior design, but what she learned about color and pattern clearly found its way into her paintings.

Piatti di Fiori, acrylic on canvas in an oak floating frame, 120 × 90 cm.

Making Room for Joy

There’s an immediate playfulness to Sheehan’s work.

There’s a playfulness to the way Sheehan puts everything together. A papaya sits beside a checked napkin. Patterned plates, fruit and flowers fill the canvas, with little details tucked in everywhere for the viewer to discover.

For Sheehan, those choices aren't just decorative.

She wants the work to leave people with something.

“More than anything, I want my paintings to feel joyful and nostalgic, like they spark a little memory or feeling in someone, even if they can’t quite place why.”

That combination of joy and nostalgia makes sense when you consider the things that continue to inspire her.

One of the biggest is travel.

A trip to India last year has continued to inspire her work.

“I still feel like it inspires pretty much every artwork I do,” she says. “I can’t get the colour combinations and beautiful patterns out of my head.”

Jewel Suzani, acrylic on canvas in an oak floating frame, 120cm x 100cm

And lately, another source of inspiration has been sitting right outside her window.

A Studio Overlooking the Farm

Today, Sheehan works from a studio in a tiny town in southern New South Wales.

Ask what someone would notice first upon walking inside and her answer comes immediately.

“Definitely the view.”

Large windows look directly over the farm surrounding her studio. In fact, the view was the reason the studio was built where it was.

“It’s pretty special to be able to sit and create while looking out at that every day.”

After years of painting colorful tablescapes and pattern-filled compositions, the landscape outside those windows is beginning to inspire something new in her work.

Sheehan has recently started experimenting with landscapes, something she hadn’t painted before.

She’s still figuring out what that looks like.

And perhaps that willingness to follow an unexpected idea is exactly how Sheehan got here in the first place.

The Part You Don’t See

From the outside, a career spent painting every day might sound pretty dreamy.

“I think people sometimes assume that because I paint every day, it must be a really calm, stress-free process,” she says. “And don’t get me wrong, a lot of the time it is, but being your own boss definitely has its moments. There’s a lot more behind the scenes than people probably realise.”

Her creative practice has also expanded beyond canvas.

Sheehan takes on textile and branding collaborations, projects she enjoys partly because they give her a chance to apply her visual language somewhere completely different.

And her painting career continues to grow.

She is currently exhibiting at the Moore Gallery and is an upcoming featured artist at the Jugiong Art Show in her hometown.

Six years after picking up a paintbrush without knowing where it might lead, Sheehan has built a career she never expected to have.

Spring Harvest, acrylic on canvas in an oak floating frame, 100cm x 76cm

Sometimes the Other Plan Is Better

There’s an almost impossible neatness to Sheehan’s story in hindsight.

The interior design school she intended to attend in London closed.

She stayed home.

Her sister needed a painting.

She made one.

A gallery happened to see it.

Then came six paintings. Another gallery. Ten more. A sold-out exhibition. And eventually, a full-time art practice.

But perhaps the most interesting part isn't how quickly things happened.

It’s that Sheehan kept saying yes to something she hadn't planned for.

The curating degree, the interior design education, the lessons in color and pattern, the unexpected first painting, even the view outside her studio window have all found their way into the work she makes now.

And somewhere along the way, the career she hadn't imagined became hers.

Lunch at Amber Fort, acrylic on canvas in an oak floating frame, 100cm x 76cm

If there’s one thing Sheehan hopes people carry with them after encountering her work, it comes back to the same elements that have followed her throughout the story.

Her love of color. Her obsession with pattern. And the feeling created when the two meet.

Nearly six years after one colorful tablescape changed the direction of her life, she’s still experimenting with both.

Only now, she knows exactly which side of the art world she belongs on.

Where to Find Emma

Website: emmasheehanartist.com

Instagram: @emmasheehanartist

Facebook: Emma Sheehan Artist

Email: emma.sheehan6@gmail.com

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