About Elizabeth Barsham
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Event: Paintings by Elizabeth Barsham
Dates: 5 Aug 2017 - 26 Aug 2017
A selected exhibition of paintings created in the last five years - and every picture tells a story.
I love stories. My childhood was divided between falling off ponies and reading books. I grew up with Greek mythology and French tales of chivalry, moving on to Icelandic sagas and German folk tales. My nose was always in a book, but very few were about Tasmania. We were hungry for own stories, and on the rare occasion when a new Tasmanian book was published, somebody in the family would buy it immediately. I became an amateur historian and full-time artist searching for a uniquely Tasmanian mythology and folklore. These paintings are part of that search.
The exhibition includes several inspired by an Arts Tasmania Cultural Residency on King Island (in Bass Strait); others draw on such diverse sources as sketches done on bushwalks and family farms, current affairs and my father's photographs. All have a playful, surreal, twist and a dark, gothic sense of humour.
Biography
My ancestors were among the earliest English settlers in Tasmania where wildlife and geology are exotic even by Australian standards. Living in my grandfather's house, I paint the history of Europeans in this remote landscape, creating romantic, enigmatic images of desperation and determination. Nineteenth century literature, Heavy Metal music, Goth fashion, environmental degradation and climate change inform my art, creating a uniquely Tasmanian Gothic mythology.
