ARTIST TO WATCH
Elizabeth Nelson
In 2012, in an effort to transform her art practice, she consulted the I Ching. That act inspired the “Symbolic Landscape” series. She finished the series in 2017. This epic collection of sixty-four, 20”x20” paintings reflects the hexagrams of the I Ching, a late 9th century BC divination text that uses cleromancy to inform moral decision making in Taoist and Confucianist traditions. Nelson has lived in the Northeast Kingdom for the past 45 years. For 25 of those years, she was a dairy farmer in addition to being a painter with a particular talent for rendering the impact of the weather on the landscape. “My work has evolved to be a kind of record of this Northern landscape,” writes Nelson. “We are challenged with harsh weather, extremes of temperature and the long duration of a winter, but we are also rewarded with extraordinary beauty. The changing light sculpts, reveals and obscures the bones of the land.”
“Artists to Watch 2018” is a survey of contemporary Vermont artists that appears as special features in Vermont Art Guide #6 and #7 and in a two-part exhibition at the Vermont Arts Council.
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Each issue of Vermont Art Guide has over a hundred places to see art around the state. The full-color, printed magazine has artist and venue profiles as well as articles and news about Vermont Art. Our goal is to document and share the state’s incredible art scene. SUBSCRIBE TODAY
I throw three coins six times to create a new hexagram for each painting. Then I contemplate the resulting answer and search for an image in my mind, incorporating chance even into the procedure.
Elizabeth Nelson has a BS from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was also the recipient of a National Defense Education Act Fellowship. Her work has been shown widely since the late 1980s and has been presented in juried shows for nearly as long. She is represented by galleries in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont and has won commissions for public art, including the Town of Royalton Department of Public Safety and the Derby State Police Barracks. Find out more at
www.elizabethnelsonstudio.com.
“Artists to Watch 2018” is a survey of contemporary Vermont artists that appears as special features in Vermont Art Guide #6 and #7 and in a two-part exhibition at the Vermont Arts Council.
ABOUT ARTISTS TO WATCH | GET THE MAGAZINE | EXHIBITION DETAILS
Each issue of Vermont Art Guide has over a hundred places to see art around the state. The full-color, printed magazine has artist and venue profiles as well as articles and news about Vermont Art. Our goal is to document and share the state’s incredible art scene. SUBSCRIBE TODAY
Images by Elizabeth Nelson (top to bottom):
38. Opposition (20″x20″; oil on birch panel)
47 (20″x20″; oil on birch panel)
Images courtesy of the artist.