Artist Statement 2011

The reconstruction of small radiant moments that exist in my memory define the images I choose to paint. As a figurative painter I work to find the edge of a private moment. The swimming series emerged in 2004 in response to a specific moment in the life of my family and a strong desire to mark a moment of pure joy. I am intrigued by the metaphor of water, the leap of faith, and the images I choose resonate with the fragility of the individual, the search for the Divine, and the simplicity of selective memory. The jumpers, divers and swimmers are to me, mortal representatives of the perfection of the human spirit, of a moment in time, of the sweetness of youth and of the possibility of magic. I paint quickly, working with oil on canvas, layering thick impasto over washes of color, often allowing the underpainting to remain visible. I look for images that cause my heart to leap, active, mid-flight narratives that speak of something about to happen, of the possibility of magic.

I usually work on several images concurrently, working the palette in subtle variations. I often paint the same image repeatedly in an effort to discover an abstraction within the image, and as a way of journaling my work, creating small images as a prelude to large format works. The theme of the memory myth of summer offers a portal into my imagination and in this dialogue with the canvas I wish to develop into an artist of instinctive abstract large-scale works of lush paint.

Artist statement 2010 | Artist statement 2009 | Artist statement 2008

Biography

Elizabeth Lennie is an actress who lives in mid-town Toronto with husband actor/author Mike Kirby and their three daughters. Together Mike and "Libby" run Voiceworx.