Elizabeth Gourlay

Open letter with 4 forms

2012

Elizabeth Gourlay is an American abstract artist, whose work emerges from a progressive process of layering color, lines and forms, informed both by inner emotional states, and her observation of nature and architecture. She lives and works in Chester, Connecticut. She was invited to work with Master Printer Anthony Kirk. Gourlay finds the immediacy and experimental quality of monotypes valuable to her practice as an artist. Her work is featured in various private and corporate collections, including The Lewitt Collection, The Marriott Family and Yale University. She is the recipient of several grants and fellowships, including two Individual Artist State Grants from the DECD/Connecticut Office of the Arts. In 2011, she was an invited artist in residence at the studio of Sol LeWitt, Spoleto, Italy. Gourlay uses a wide range of media such as oil, flashe, acrylic, ink and graphite to create artfully simple and strong compositions. Gourlay thinks of her work as a meditation on colors, lines and forms, leading to a complex network of shifting shapes and colors. She has an interest in elements found in nature, architecture and music, drawing lines, grids and geometric shapes to demonstrate it. Indeed, her work is often described by its musicality and architectural connotations. The use of line suggests influences from Agnes Martin, while her play of color reminds Paul Klee’s work. Her compositions deal with order and chaos using a line, color and shape.