Liza Mackintosh - Everlasting Light
Everlasting Light oil on wood 80 x 90cm
Opens at 10am on Sunday 16th October.
We are delighted to present Everlasting Light, a solo exhibition featuring a new collection of paintings by abstract landscape artist Liza Mackintosh.
The exhibition comprises of eighteen paintings, varying in size, on canvas, paper and board. Many of you will be familiar with her work from our previous postcard exhibitions but this is the first time that we have exhibited a full collection of her paintings at the gallery. The exhibition takes place both online and in our studio space.
‘All of the works in Everlasting Light are united by Liza’s interest in capturing the remembered experience of walking through the landscape that surrounds her.
Liza's use of both subtle glazes and thicker layers of paint create a variety of texture in each piece, with thicker areas of paint relating to topographical features of the landscape, and translucent layers that hint at frosty fields, frozen lakes and waterways. The application of each layer is dictated by the painting journey as each piece develops intuitively and takes on its own life and energy. Whilst there is the suggestion of landscape features that one might recognise, Liza’s work is not prescriptive, and the interpretation of each piece is left up to the viewer.
We are absolutely thrilled to be staging this show by an incredibly exciting new artist.’
Hannah Ivory Baker
Director of Highgate Contemporary Art
Liza currently lives and works in East Sussex, not far from the Ashdown Forest. She studied a Foundation Diploma at University College Falmouth; exposing her to the artistic cultures in Cornwall, completing the course with a distinction.
After specialising in Fine Art with an emphasis on painting, Liza studied a BA in Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts London, graduating in 2015.
Liza created this body of work over the course of this year stretching, priming, and sanding the surfaces in the short and cold days of January, painting whilst the seasons continued to change outside her studio. Working on the collection throughout the year meant that the changing light and colour of each season influenced the direction of the work.
“Knowing the paintings were to be exhibited in the Autumn, I have had the beautiful colours and feel of this season in my mind whilst working. I love the feeling of the Autumnal months when you gather indoors and feel cosy. The last hints of a warm summer sun that gradually turns cooler, and the low early morning mist turns into a glistening frost that coats fields, creating a beautiful blue-green hue.”
The slithers or dashes of light and colour in Liza’s paintings allude to these seasonal changes; the changes in weather and colour of the landscape around her.
Liza’s paintings always begin outside the studio. She starts by looking and taking in the landscape around her, taking visual notes of the colours, the movement and textures that she sees. Despite sketching and photographing the landscape, the most integral part of her process is the remembered and experienced. “For my paintings, it is the feeling and energy of the land that I am interested in translating into paint”.
The movement of paint as it drips or slides across the canvas or wood panel captures the spontaneity of Liza’s work, each piece a journey that develops intuitively. “When I allow the paint to move in an organic way it feels as if I am working in harmony with the materials” an important part of Liza’s process and the journey that each piece takes her on in its making.
The remembered experiences of walking and being in the landscape around her is the starting point of her work which is followed by applying layers of paint over weeks, or months, that add depth and a tranquil, ethereal quality to each piece.
Behind the scenes and studio shots
