Original artwork
In Emma, Debby Talbot presents a female figure seen from behind, built from a mosaic of acrylic fragments on canvas. The cut, layered, and textured material transforms the body into an image that feels at once seductive, vulnerable, and subtly unsettled. Flesh tones, deep blues in the garment, and scattered bursts of colour throughout the hair create a sensitive, almost shifting presence, where beauty is touched by a sense of strangeness.

Inspired by the work of Janet Werner, Debby Talbot draws from found imagery, particularly fashion magazine images, as well as various artistic references. As in Werner’s work, the female figure becomes a place of tension between visual allure and the fragility of identity. The breaks in the material, the cuts, the layered fragments, and the formal alterations suggest a body being recomposed, suspended between appearance and disappearance.

Through acrylic fragments, Debby Talbot creates a living surface where the image seems to construct and deconstruct itself before our eyes. The result is a poetic reflection on feminine representation: colourful and playful, yet complex, vulnerable, and elusive.