Emma Winterschladen is an artist, illustrator and writer – living, working, playing, art-making and home-educating in Hexham, Northumberland, alongside her husband and two young daughters.

Although the shape and form of my work has evolved over the years, it continually finds its way to the places where love, loss, creativity and ‘can-you-believe-we-get-to-be-aliveness?!’ intersect – what my late mum would call the ‘big fat juicy things’ in life, alongside the smaller everyday things too.

The first part of my career was built around words. I worked as a food and travel editor on a lifestyle magazine before going freelance. My work has since been published in Grazia, Red, Stylist, YOU Magazine, Psychologies and Delicious, among others, and I’ve also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and BBC London to discuss some of my published pieces.

Since the birth of my first daughter in 2021, my work has shifted, and also paused for periods of time too, whilst I’ve been the primary caregiver in my girls’ early years. Words haven’t always come as easily as they did, and the projects I took on became more art-focused and embodied – more making with my hands, less screen-focused – be it through collaging, painting or facilitating in community.

This has included the slow development of my own studio practice, which now has a home over on my Etsy shop Art by EJW, where I sell originals, fine art prints and print-you-own digital artwork. I also create a monthly illustration for Writers’ Hour Magazine, and take on (the now-occasional) private, brand and editorial commissions.

Most recently, I was selected as one of the artists for Peter Rabbit™: Tales on the Tyne, a public art trail in support of St Oswald’s Hospice. My painted sculpture Once Upon a Tyne brings together my love of reading, children’s literature and the North East. You can find it until September 15th in Northumberland Park, North Shields – the park of my own childhood.

Another continually evolving area of my work is facilitating creative workshops. I hold an Advanced Diploma in the Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts (completed in 2021 at IATE in London) and this – alongside more recent professional development workshops and courses with The Creativity Project – has deeply shaped how I think about holding space, and nurturing creativity within local communities, schools, learning spaces and my own home. Over the past few years I have hosted creative workshops for children and families when I can – all different, but all rooted in collage, open-ended play and process art. This is something I’d love to do more of in the future (so please do get in touch if you’re interested).

I now find myself in a season of life where the two main strands of my work – writing and visual practice – are feeling ready to come together meaningfully. One way this manifests is in my (long-held!) ambition to write and illustrate children’s picture books. I’m currently working on my first picture book project with a dear old friend (watch this space), and working on my own too. I’m also currently – very slowly, very joyfully – researching and writing a historical literary novel (though don’t watch this space, you’ll be here for years!).

I hope this online home offers an insight into my creative work and life, who I am, and the different areas of what I do, which somehow feel part of the same whole. If you’d like to discuss a project, commissioning me, working together, potential workshops or have any other enquiry, please email me on ejwinterschladen@icloud.com.

You can also find me on Instagram here.

Thanks for reading,