Featured Artist Ember Blythe Estridge

I make illustrative art that is explorative and eclectic in nature. Using vivid colors and whimsical themes, I seek to use art as a tool for coping with and overcoming the discordant world we live in. Creating both sequential mass consumption pieces as well as stand-alone gallery pieces, I desire my work to captivate a wide audience. 

I seek to use art as a tool for coping with and overcoming the discordant world we live in.

As an art educator in public Title 1 schools, much of my work is inspired and created around the classroom. I tailor projects and lessons to engage and motivate students, impacting my own art making in the process. The resourcefulness and inventiveness of creating art projects accessible to a wide range of students and ages allows me to see multiple possibilities for each art material. 

I received my BFA from Winthrop University and my MFA from Jacksonville University. My art is varied in both the location of its creation as well as the materials I choose to work with. My art making transpires at proper easels, desks, floors, and even the ground outside - whatever venue suits the need of the piece’s creation. The media in which I work is equally varied - colored pencil, conte crayon, pastel, printmaking, acrylic, oil, watercolor, graphite, charcoal. The world of art is too broad to narrow down my favorite media. This love of diversity comes in handy when teaching art to young learners. It is imperative that I be versed in a wide array of materials and processes to best teach my students.

Ember's favorite materials from The Artist Life include: Canson & Strathmore watercolor paper, Prismacolor colored pencils, travel-sized sketchbooks, white charcoal pencils, and washi tape.