Liz Sullivan
BFA, ASA, BVAS
Biography
Liz has lived and worked in Calgary, Alberta for 35 years. In 1997 she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a double major in drawing and painting, from the University of Calgary. Since then, her career has included art teaching, commissions and ongoing painting projects in her studio. She is an active member of Burns Visual Arts Society (a Studio Cooperative, 40 years strong) and the Alberta Society of Artists.
With her passion for nature, she continually explores new ways to work with acrylics to depict energy & spirit in landscape. Her exhibition history spans 30 years & her artwork is represented at Calgary’s Banker’s Hall, the Leighton Centre, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Glenbow Museum Shop, Marten Arts (Bayfield, Ontario) & art collections in Canada, USA & Ireland.
In the last 10 years, Art Residencies at the Banff Centre (Alberta), Emma Lake (Saskatchewan) and Cill Rialaig (Ireland) have facilitated an increasing shift to abstraction in her work.
More recently she has been working on a WW2 family history series exploring themes of resilience & hope. Several pieces have been in exhibits with ‘The Alberta Society of Artists’ in Calgary, Edmonton & public galleries throughout Alberta, Canada. Her current artwork is in The Art of Freedom, a collaborative project between Burns Visual Arts Society and PEK (Dutch art cooperative) commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Liberation; parallel exhibitions are on display in the Window Gallery, Calgary Central Library and Ede, the Netherlands during the spring of 2020.
Artist Statement
‘Glorious and free’ is a phrase Canadians know all to well. These words from our National Anthem convey my approach to art and life. From humble rural beginnings with immigrant parents to my own creative journey and migrating West, my artwork explores the “glorious & free” in family story and place. This phrase is the title for an upcoming 2020 solo exhibit at the Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery, uniting two unique bodies of work: my FREEDOM series and HIGH Landscapes.
The HIGH series is a collection of contemporary landscapes created in the last 10 years, based on favorite hiking destinations in the Canadian Rockies. Trail notes, sketches and photos provided the framework for my HIGH project at an art residency at the Banff Centre in 2014. My ongoing landscape creations are an expression of emotional connection to place through bold colour and painting techniques.
My current series FREEDOM honors my parents’ stories as children in occupied Holland during the second World War. Themes of hope, resilience and “rising above” the challenges of war and tragedy are portrayed in paint and installation. The Ascent of the Innocent (48”x24”), my acrylic on canvas (+ painted boots) is on view in ‘T’he Art of Freedom’ at the Calgary Central Library, March – June 2020. This collaborative exhibition between Burns Visual Arts Society, Calgary and PEK (Dutch art cooperative) commemorates the 75th Anniversary of Liberation.
My artwork celebrates the most beautiful thing about Alberta: majestic mountains, alpine lakes, meadows and prairie. And the most beautiful thing about Canada: a rich multicultural society, diversity and freedom of expression.
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© Liz Sullivan Lily Lake Reflections Sunshine Meadows and Paintbrush 36″ x 40″
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© Liz Sullivan Ascent of the Innocent