ZOOM | Fall/Winter 2018

“THESE ARE MEMORY
PAINTINGS FROM A VISIT
TO NOVA SCOTIA . . .
IT HAD A PROFOUND
IMPACT ON ME.”
Elizabeth A. Evans likes to paint stories. Her haunting and
colourful pieces are full of meaning and really do suggest
tales and places that invite the viewer to walk right into
a narrative. “Place” features strongly in her work, which
is always from memory, not photographs. And so she
communicates to the viewer what stands out most for her
in each place, be it a feeling, a colour, or an imagined tale.
This makes her work both down-to-earth and dream-like.
The Maritime series featured here is a good example.
“These are memory paintings from a visit to Nova Scotia
when I was a girl. The trip are so vivid in my memory that
I have been able to paint these mirror reflection scenes
and many maritime scenes with variations on what I saw
during that trip. It had a profound impact on me and what
I wanted to convey in the paintings. Quiet solitude. Joyful,
soulful, and reflective.”
If Evans’ work strikes a familiar chord it might be because
she was mentored and taught how to paint by Arthur
Lismer, a founder of the Group of Seven.
“My formal training was influenced heavily by Arthur
Lismer, who taught me to paint with a big fat brush. Over
the years that has stuck with me, even when I was doing
very fine high-realism work. The Brickilism paintings
(small bricks of colour) were influenced by the fat brush.
These days I’m doing larger swatches of colour and form
with a larger brush. Arthur is on my shoulder screaming
at me to loosen up the brush strokes and grab a fatter
brush.”
Asked about her collectors, Evans says that we on the
Coast are pretty sophisticated.
“I think most of my collectors tend to like paintings that
touch their soul—works that reach out and make it
impossible for a collector not to own it. Most of my work
is representational, but I’m finding that on the Coast,
collectors are more sophisticated and are able to see the
beauty and meaning in colour, shape, and form. They like
my semi-abstract minimalist works.”
Her upcoming exhibition at One Flower One Leaf Gallery
(October 12–28) in Gibsons will showcase fifty years of
her paintings.
“I THINK MOST OF MY
COLLECTORS TEND TO
LIKE PAINTINGS THE
TOUCH THEIR SOUL–
WORKS THAT REACH
OUT AND MAKE IT
IMPOSSIBLE FOR A
COLLECTOR NOT TO
OWN IT.”
VISIT ONEFLOWERONELEAF.COM FOR DETAILS ON ELIZABETH A. EVANS’
RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION.
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