A Life in the Mountains
Elizabeth brings her experience of living in the mountains, as opposed to just visiting mountains, to her artwork:
“My work is all based on my love and knowledge of the mountains. I grew up with both my parents involved in the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team in the north of Scotland and was extremely blessed to be introduced to adventuring in the mountains at an early age. In all my work I seek to depict that joy of adventure and the incredible power and beauty of creation.”
Perspective
Elizabeth paints the mountains from her unique perspective – that of an adventurer standing on the mountain itself. Where as conventional landscape art traditionally looks upward from the base, Elizabeth depicts the view seen looking down.
“I seek to show the mountains from the perspective of a climber or skier or mountaineer, as this is how my unique knowledge of these places has been formed. I view my artwork as a way of exploring the land and as such only make work of a place after having been for an adventure there where I’ve explored the land.”
The result is paintings with real depth that give the viewer an experience of height.
In practise she uses photographs or stills from her videos from her expeditions. From these she composes preliminary drawings before expressing the adventurer’s experience in oil paints.