Art enthusiasts flocked to a Chester gallery to view the latest collection by figurative artist Emma Grzonkowski at the weekend.

More than 50 guests visited Castle Fine Art at The Grosvenor Shopping Centre on Saturday (July 15) to meet the artist herself and discuss her Alter Egos body of work.

Emma – who graduated from the University of Chester with a fine art and graphic design degree in 2009 – spoke to visitors about her techniques and the inspirations behind the collection.

Influenced by the femme fatales of modern culture, Alter Egos focuses on the four dominant facets of Emma’s own inner dialogue: ‘The hopeless romantic’, ‘the destructor’, ‘the manipulator’ and ‘the warrior’.

The collection is a natural progression from her previous body of work Seven Deadly Sins which, similarly, aimed to depict various different personas of which a variety of different viewers could identify with.

Originally from Northwich and now living in Chester, Emma found her artistic direction whilst studying for her degree, when she was given free rein to experiment and find her own style.

Emma Grzonkowski said: “Chester is where I truly established myself as an artist and where my art career began, so I couldn’t think of a better place to launch my new collection.

“Alter Egos was many months in the making and there was a real process behind creating each character, so it was wonderful to share this with visitors and talk through my ideas and inspirations. It was my hope that people viewing the body of work would feel they could take on the strong sides of their alter egos and feel empowered in their everyday lives.“

Castle Fine Art in The Grosvenor Shopping Centre

Gallery manager at Castle Fine Art Frances Woodhouse said: “Emma is a fantastic local artist so it was a pleasure to welcome her to the gallery to meet our guests and discuss Alter Egos.

“Visitors were able to delve deeper into Emma’s processes and techniques and learn more about her previous collections and how she established herself as an artist, and we hope everybody left feeling very inspired.”