Elizabeth Priestley
CREATIVE PRACTICE
Landscape artist working in encaustic, oils and mixed media
ARTIST STATEMENT
The earliest of our memories is what fascinates me. I am always striving towards pinpointing that connection between our first impressions of our environment, and its emotional corollary within our future lives. The work is a result of that endeavour. Landscapes articulating a personal reaction to the recollection of that fundamental impact. Expanding on this, I desire to explore further the connection of "bequeathed" memory. Asking the questions of past generations no longer here, whether we are the product of their emotional experience of landscape and environment. By producing encaustic works, which in themselves are products of layers over time, I aim to pose these same questions to the viewer. Landscape is our conduit for the spiritual, this has been illustrated across cultures and generations. By using encaustic, I am alternately building and layering, and reducing, carving and scraping out an image. There is a revelation in the work as it progresses, and in its final form. This process is a physical representation of searching those layers of memory. The resulting image is the vehicle in which the viewer will resonate with their own epiphany of those small personal, binding memories.
BIO
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Dark Light – Fierce Love New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, NSW
2020 The Solitary and the Sublime
Milk Factory Gallery, Bowral, NSW
2019 Disappearance of Days Gallery 503, Sydney, NSW
2018 New Works Milk Factory Gallery, Bowral, NSW
2018 Waterways and Wonderments
Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, NSW
2016 Petrichor Milk Factory Gallery, Bowral, Bowral
2016 New Work Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, NSW
2014 Burnished Light Civic Arts Centre, Gunnedah, NSW
2012 Latest Works Nexus Gallery, Bellingen, NSW
2012 On the Outer Tamworth Regional Gallery – Ray Walsh House, Tamworth, NSW
2009 Solo Studio Show Peel Street Studio, Tamworth, NSW
2007 Inland Washhouse Gallery, Balmain, Sydney
Group Exhibitions
2018 Balmain Art Show Balmain
2016 Changing Face of the Peel Tamworth Regional Gallery
2016 A Regional Mix Janet Clayton, Paddington
2015 New Works by Marilynne Barnes & Liz Priestley
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth, NSW
2015 Balmain Art Show Balmain
2014 End of Year Group Show Weswal Gallery, Tamworth, NSW
2014 Balmain Art Show Balmain
2014 Frost Over Barraba Barraba, NSW, Invited Feature Artist
2014 New Works Nexus Gallery, Bellingen, NSW
2014 Wax Impressions Gallery 126, Armidale, NSW
2012 Crossing New England Armidale Art Gallery, Armidale, NSW
2009 Australian Heart Collective Bondi Pavilion, Bondi, Sydney
2007 Reflections Gallery 41, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, NSW
2004 Australian Heart Collective Bondi Pavilion, Bondi, Sydney, NSW
Art Prizes
2019 Winner Barraba Art Show
2011 Finalist, Essential Energy Art Prize, Bathurst Regional Gallery
Public Collections
NSW Regional Healthcare Manilla Palliative Care Unit
Tamworth Regional Art Gallery Collection
Selected Bibliography
2020 Art Edit Magazine
2020 Highlife Magazine