Devon Artist Turns Home into a Living Art Gallery
Devon painter Emily Powell transforms her family home into The Art of the Living, painting every surface for an immersive, color-driven art project that redefines daily life and home rituals.
From a practical family home to a living canvas, Devon artist Emily Powell has turned her dwelling into a colorful art installation. Over the past ten years she has hand-painted nearly every surface, turning daily routines into a gallery-like experience.
The Art of the Living: A Home as Gallery
Powell's Brixham house acts as the stage for a project she calls The Art of the Living. Walls, cupboards and even light switches bear scenes and motifs, creating a seamless flow from room to room. The project recently opened to ticket holders, offering a rare peek at an artist’s home styled as an ongoing exhibition.
Her career highlights include solo shows at London’s Portland Gallery and a lecture at the Royal Academy of Arts. She has also presented work from residencies on the Isles of Scilly and on Dartmoor, including pieces inspired by Arctic landscapes.
Color drives the mood in each space. The living room is painted a warm red to foster coziness, while Delftware-inspired designs reference Powell’s Dutch connections on walls and kitchen surfaces. Powell explains that the intention is to evoke different emotions in different rooms, guiding how a family feels and interacts at home.
Open House: A Different Kind of Art Experience
The open house offers an immersive, narrative experience rather than a typical gallery visit. A playroom for her daughter features circus animals wearing party hats, while the kitchen fridge fronts are decorated with painted motifs. A ceiling fig tree and birds painted along the stairs create a sense of movement through the home.
Visitors follow a deliberate path from the hallway skyline of Paris to a bedroom filled with Scottish wildflowers, illustrating how spaces can narrate stories through colour and imagery.
Powell notes that the project began as a curiosity in the new house and gradually grew into a full-scale creative experiment. “I let the color take over,” she said, adding that the display has grown beyond initial plans.
The practical side is not ignored. Her husband, Jack Powell, says the painted floors can hide toys, and that the constant painting means some clothes or even toothbrushes come away with paint stains. He adds that the family lives with the daily reality of an ever-changing home.
The event runs until December 7 and has sold out, with hundreds on a waiting list and visitors arriving from abroad, including the United States, to experience the project. Powell says she is grateful for the interest but has run out of walls to paint in this house and plans to begin a new chapter elsewhere.
Expert comment: Art critic Maya Dyer notes that Powell’s work blurs the line between home and gallery, using colour as a tool to guide mood and interaction inside a domestic setting. It demonstrates how living spaces can evolve into evolving works of art.
In short, Emily Powell’s Devon home demonstrates how a personal space can become public art, inviting audiences to view daily life as a canvas and story. The project highlights the power of colour to shape emotion and social dynamics within a home and signals new opportunities for artist-led homes.
Key insight: A home can become a living canvas where colour guides emotion, turning everyday spaces into experiential art. Source: BBC News