Emma's childhood was spent living between Sydney and south-western NSW as well as traveling around the world with her family. She studied at the National Art School and has also studied in Italy and traveled extensively. She is represented in numerous private and corporate collections.

'Emma Walker is one of Australia's most convincing and original painters. Her work is as audacious as it is poetic; the one quality leavens the other, so that just as delicate reverie sets in, you're pulled up by a less immediately seductive note, an act of painterly boldness or some other form of tough, enlivening aesthetic decision… these are intelligent paintings - intelligent in their understanding of ambiguities, of space, and of colour.' Sebastian Smee 2006

'Emma uses abstract forms and many layers of paint to create an array of different textural effects. Her work explores the connections between landscape, memory and the subconscious. She has an instinctive understanding of colour and there is an extreme play of light and dark in her abstracted landscapes which creates a dreamlike dimension.' Tim Olsen 2006

'The process is largely intuitive with decisions regarding composition, palette, texture and tonality being made rapidly, one move informing the next. I work using many layers of paint and I enjoy manipulating the medium in many ways to build up rich and varied surfaces. In this way the painting can reveal itself gradually and be visually interesting on different levels. The technique of working in layers seems symbolically important. As if each layer contributes in giving the painting a sense of history and a real physical presence. Like organs, bones, muscles, arteries, veins and skin all being essential and intrinsic parts of the human body. So too does each layer of paint need to be applied to make up the finished piece. Sometimes I will photograph a work in its various stages and it is fascinating to see how many paintings there were beneath that final layer. Perhaps this is analogous to a life lived. All of those countless moments that contribute to the experience of being alive and of the person that we become through all of these experiences. Painting is my way of making some sense of the world and my particular incarnation in it. Each work that I do, somehow informs the next and so all the paintings that I have ever produced, form a kind of family with an ever growing ancestry.' Emma Walker