Elizabeth Lennie

"Bahamian Tethys" vertical abstract oil painting of a swimmer in turquoise water

2023

Water has been the backdrop to the significant events in my life. The reconstruction of radiant moments that exist in memory define the images I choose to paint, of swimming in the liquid landscapes of northern Ontario and the aqua waters of the Caribbean. I work with oil paint on canvas, layering thin washes with thicker impasto, occasionally working on wood panel and incorporating cold wax and graphite. The images are often figurative and explore the memory myth of summer, and the dual reality of the Canadian hot and cold climate. The paintings are the map of my world, in both abstract and narrative form. I look for archetypes, in an attempt to explore notions of self and community within the resonance of shared memory. It is the past/present/future illusion that I seek to define in my work. This drives me to explore and paint the same image repeatedly, looking for an entry point into the subconscious, occasionally scratching notes into the paint as symbols to carry the work forward. By isolating and extracting vibrant colors in a signature soft-focus style, a utopian childhood is recalled, creating the memory myth of shared experience here on earth. "How remarkable it is that you have chosen as two of your recurring themes, swimming in summer in the Canadian Shield, and skating on those same lakes when winter descends. Remarkable because you have lived your whole life in Canada, in Ontario even, and yet you have understood what is best about the place where you live. Most people have to move far away to figure that sort of thing out. They can only understand the nature of the mountain when they have seen it from the plain. You, my dear friend, have the wisdom to see the beauty of where you are, while you are there, and that ability is as rare as...the world becoming a skating rink over which you can fly." —Johnny Wales, Sado Island, Japan