E mma Richardson loves to eavesdrop when people look at her paintings and talk about what they see in them. “They turn into these Rorschach inkblot tests,” she grins. Looking at her works, you do stand back in awe wondering. Is that a nebula, a god or a fleshy, baroque orgy? An explosion, an implosion or an orgasm? Richardson implies all of these and more, her paintbrush chasing in vivid oils the hedonism, desire and breadth of human experience.

This fascination with the transcendent has in part been informed by her other life as a musician, formerly in the garage-rock trio Band of Skulls and currently playing bass and singing in Pixies .

“Teabag in or out?” she asks brightly, her studio flooded with natural light, illuminating her canvases, some two metres tall. We are in the far, ungentrified reaches of east London, where a Dickensian-vibes building with a glazed roof and bathroom tiles of architectural salvage dreams can still serve as affordable studios.…