A STUDIO VISIT WITH LIZ AINSLIE BY CLARITY HAYNES
I
enjoyed my visit to Liz Ainslie's studio in Williamsburg. Her paintings
are a pleasure to look at, and they made me think about how paintings are made and the history of painting. The longer I looked, the more I saw, and over time
things I didn’t notice at first became subtly compelling.
What
I was struck by right away was the works’ relatively modest scale, and what
seemed to be references to cubism, still-life, and modernist
abstraction. Liz and I had an interesting discussion about painters
and art history. She cites
Cezanne, Vuillard and Ellsworth Kelly as influences, and is interested in
Post-Impressionism and Minimalism.
The base of the paintings consists of neutral colors that might make one
think of modernists like Morandi or Cezanne. But Liz is equally influenced by
her everyday contemporary world and culture -- hence the interruptions of
saturated, almost day-glo colors. The bright color often takes the form of a line which
delineates forms and suggests space, while always breaking down any coherent
spatial system. The forms are mostly cuttingly angular. The neutrals and brights coexist in a kind of harmonic
feud, and there are beautiful subtleties
of similar values and colors – part of what makes prolonged looking so
rewarding.
I
was curious about her process. Liz
described it as something both felt and achieved over time: a mixture of research,
experimentation and practice. She has a strong background in color theory, but
employs an intuitive and personal approach to color made up of particular
systems and habits acquired through the experience of working.
I
find Liz's paintings to be rare and refreshing in the context of our
times. They are obviously
hand-painted, bypassing the gloss of the digital age. By her own words, she is
“not a hard edge painter.” She avoids a slick facture, going instead for a handmade look and
an almost rough, matte surface. Brushstrokes are often visible over
a warm reddish underpainting. I feel that the work displays a beguiling combination of humility, vulnerability and restraint.
The
painting I chose for the Collectively Assembled show is one of Liz’s most
recent. The palette is a
combination of darks and bright blues, and to me it exemplifies the unfolding
contradictions and mysteries of her work.
To see more of Liz Ainslie's work: http://lizainslie.com/paintings
Read more about her process here:
