Bern Emmerichs (1961- ) trained as a painter, completing a Diploma of Fine Art at Phillip Institute of Technology, Melbourne in 1982. She became interested in clay as a medium while renovating her house and now paints on tiles, vessels and platters, as well as working in mosaic. She is married to glass painter Gerhard Emmerichs, who arrived in Australia from Germany in 1981. The couple were founding members of 'Whitehall Enterprises', a group of about six artists who together rented an old factory in Whitehall Street, Footscray from 1987 to 1990. In 2000-2002, Bern spent two-years travelling, working and exhibiting in Europe, based for most of the time in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany. Recently, inspired by Kate Grenville's The Secret River, she has been exploring imagery related to Australian colonial history. Her works are signed with a painted 'Bern Emmerichs'.