Lizzie Lilley

Lizzie’s current practice centres around slow abstraction of photographic imagery. Images are distilled into shape and form, through an instinctive process focussed on colour and texture, transforming, and interrogating the image whilst retaining something of its essence. Her recent body of work has produced a tension between moments of panicked movement with a saturation of colour, and those of calm and quiet reflection.

Lizzie’s work currently references an eclectic mix of moments of social history from any point in the past 150 years. She is initially informed by photographic images capturing events of interest to her, which often have an inherent connection with place and parallels that can be drawn with many global issues being experienced today. She is particularly interested with moments of civil unrest but has also been drawn to historic moments of innovation and disaster in polar and space exploration. The subject matter is hugely varied and can be influenced by literature, film, music, and podcasts.

An essential element of Lizzie’s current practice is small drawn studies, usually made in coloured pencil and informed by one or more of the source images. Restricted palettes are an important tool, which are determined by an unconscious repetitive process. Her work is predominantly concerned with the interplay of colour and texture which somewhat overtakes the subject matter of the original imagery.

The drawn studies go on to inform both large scale drawings and painted works, which become abstract interpretations of the source images. The works take on their own significance or feeling: