ARTIST STATEMENT - LIZ CUMING

Having painted and exhibited for a good thirty years could I possibly qualify as a “mid-career artist”? Life is focussed on painting, exhibiting, and running a small arts-focussed tour operation for those wishing to explore Central Australia and visit indigenous communities and arts centres. The outback is a real magnet, and I am currently enjoying online studies – a Graduate Diploma in Australian Indigenous Knowledges through CDU in Darwin.

My work has long been inspired by landscape - experiencing fabulous natural spots is a great battery charge and escape hatch from city life. As much to my own surprise as anyone else's, recent works have veered from the overt abstraction of not so long ago, as I believe their subject is in itself innately abstract and presents special challenge. This change has coincided with falling in love with the outback. I made friends with a legendary resident of Alice Springs - this man is quite a legend as he is an (incomplete) quadriplegic as a result of a vehicle rollover some twenty six years ago. Despite being wheelchairbound and dependent on carers, he has built a business conducting 4wd training (he drives an adapted vehicle), and tagalong tours. Through Jol Fleming I have had numerous trips to Central and Western Australia in recent years, and become proficient in 4wd techniques. Highlights of these travels have been the Simpson Desert and Canning Stock Route. This meeting has opened up a whole new world of visual delight and inspiration and such was my enthusiasm upon return from early trips that I am now running "out there outback" and offering artists and those who love art a very special outback experience.

I made a series of works responding to flying over the outback initially, and then became fascinated by the hardy spinifex plant which can survive the harshest conditions the arid zones can dish up and provide a protected eco-world for insects and small desert creatures through shade and condensation. There are numerous species which vary in appearance, and then add the influence of conditions and they come in anything from withered blue greys through to lush lime greens and can provide a prickly landing if you are unlucky. There are so many different aspects to the desert that I feel I will continue to make regular trips to explore and research for many more series of paintings. Other forms of vegetation, and termite mounds currently hold my fascination as subjects.

I paint "out there" on small canvases, but often find this is as much a way of experiencing and memorizing the landscape. Rarely do these works go any further when they come back to the studio and just serve as a record of a process gone through whilst in the place. Memories and digital photography are my main resource and I really like the "how to" challenge of making an artwork – the desert offers many spatial challenges.

Another huge shift has been from oil to acrylic. Acrylics have improved greatly in recent years in colour intensity and handleability. They no longer change dramatically as they dry, and are really very versatile in combination with mediums. The matte quality achievable with these paints is very suitable for the "dry" brittle nature of my current subject and it is great to be able to work quickly, layer, and create complex surfaces which don't weigh a tonne! The majority of my work is on canvas, although I do work on Arches paper in gouache, and dry pastel.

My studio is at home - in fact I designed and built the house so that the upper level is all open space studio, and downstairs is all living. It is super convenient being on-site, but also good to have a separate space to close the door on and forget when I need to.


1.6.2008





© 2008 Liz Cuming & Michael Gray Fine Art RR&I. All rights reserved 1/ 6/ 2008