Stories from the Deep Blue – Emma Louise Pratt

About the Project

I wander in my mind and find myself flying over the Pacific or submerged under waves, making ripples, remembering blessings and warnings, stories and moments when the natural world told me I was not alone but instead an interconnected piece of an expanding, living universe.

These are short video stories, sometimes with young collaborators and sometimes not. Some stories include and are based around a painting, while others draw on illustrations and digital media.

2022 The In-between

Written to accompany a storytelling presentation I made in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand in October 2022 about family history see Whitikau Project.

2021 In the Bay

A memory I enjoyed sharing with my children, a canvas I enjoyed starting with my neighbours’ children, and a soundscape I enjoyed creating while having two budding composers add their own original composition.

In the Bay, Emma Louise Pratt 2020, 140 x 150 cm acrylic on canvas.

2020 Phosphorescence

Ink and acrylic on canvas, 127cm x 127cm, 2020

When I daydream at the moment, I often drift off to the ocean at home. I am thinking of one night, long, long ago in the first days of the new year. I am out in the bay in the dark alone in a kayak, watching the phosphorescence swirl with each stroke.

Phosphorescence in the Bay, Emma Louise Pratt 2020 127 x 127 cm acrylic on canvas
Detail of Phosphorescence in the Bay, by Emma Louise Pratt 2020 127 x 127 acrylic ink paper on canvas
Detail of Phosphorescence in the Bay, by Emma Louise Pratt 2020 127 x 127 acrylic ink paper on canvas