Elizabeth Awalt
Born 1956, Baltimore, MD, lives and works in Concord, MA
October’s Gold, 2002, oil on canvas, Museum Purchase with funds donated by Betty Jane Andrus, 2003.101
Elizabeth Awalt’s paintings begin to take shape during walks on Swan’s Island, Maine. Back in the studio, she paints from memory, selecting and eliminating information and combining the imagined with the observed. In October’s Gold, the brushwork is exuberant, and the canvas is infused with a warm light that seems to come from just below the surface. An uprooted tree leans against an upright neighbor for support. Together they form an archway which frames a golden bounty of leaves below. Like an early Renaissance church with its jewel-like mosaics, this image is imbued with reverence for the sublime.
