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Elizabeth Nelson

Relic
acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10 inches

K Circle
acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

Eastern Road Trip
acrylic on canvas, 12 x 24 inches

Elizabeth Nelson: After a short visit to Iceland in 2012, I experienced an irresistible magnetic pull, a need to be there again for a longer time to paint what I saw and felt of the landscape and weather; to be a part of the life there.

Five years later, in May, I was able to return to Iceland. I was accepted for a month long Arts Residency with SĺM, (the Association of Icelandic Artists) an organization that supports a cultural exchange of visual artists with all countries of the world.

These paintings are the result of that experience. Sometimes exactly what I thought I was painting remained as I had painted it. But quite often when the paint dried the image had changed. Instead of being the solitary maker, I became a collaborator with the paint and the surface. The progression of time became important to the process. Each level of the painting simultaneously revealing and camouflaging-- perhaps reflecting the changing weather of Iceland, or the changing stability of the earth underneath, or my deepening shifts of perception. ​