Emma Barratt’s life-long love of Far Eastern culture has influenced the clothes she wears, the way she decorates her house, she’s even going to Japan for her honeymoon next year. And it has also inspired her artwork – a selection of which the Walthamstow graphic designer is exhibiting in Arts & Crusts Café in Victoria Road.

“It’s a range of images featuring my character Satu,“ says Emma, 32. “She’s based on my best friend’s daughter, a little Korean girl called Ji Sun. She’s really inquisitive and independent and I love observing her. Also, I have quite a child-like outlook on the world, so I just connected the two together.“

Emma’s style is very clean and simple, informed by her background as a designer, with bright blocks of colour, simple shapes and flat backgrounds.

Emma, who is originally from Salford and moved to Walthamstow Village four years ago, starts each piece off sketching by hand and then completes it on the computer. “A lot of people can tell what my day job is by looking at my art,“ she laughs.

The exhibition includes images of Satu inside a glass bottle that is bobbing along on the sea, dangling from a single red balloon over snow-capped mountain tops, and flying through the clouds in a wind-propelled teapot, often accompanied by a little robin redbreast friend.

“I’m really inspired by Japan,“ she explains. “I was brought up on a diet of kung fu movies by my uncle and really got into martial arts from those. Even though kung fu isn’t Japanese it kind of grew from there and it’s influenced my fashion, my house – to be honest, I wish I was Japanese!“

  • Satu is at Arts & Crusts Café, Victoria Road, Walthamstow until mid-December during opening hours. Details: contact Emma via www.emmabarratt.com or Arts & Crusts café on 07736 669691