Elisabeth Cummings paintings are lyrical pictures that wonderfully evoke the bush of Australia, the rugged beauty of a continent that has profoundly influenced artists for generations.
Cummings lives in an idyllic rural area outside Sydney called Weddeburn – which has become something of an artists enclave – where, over the past 50 years, she’s built a reputation as a painters painter. Working quietly and consistently for decades Cummings has always been exploring the land around her in a style that harks back to the early French Modernists such as Cézanne, Bonnard and Matisse as well as the the American abstract expressionists and of course Australia’s greatest painter, Ian Fairweather, whose influence has been profound on the Australian artistic landscape.
There is something deeply grounded about these pictures with their scarred, heavily worked surfaces, complex colours and wonderful light. It’s as if Cummings is intent on describing that which cannot be seen, her seemingly chaotic marks opening up a vista that has depth and complexity, her paintings exploring both the historical, psychological and physical aspects of the country she loves so well.
Perhaps it takes many years of work, study and contemplation to create such fine paintings. Either way, whichever way, these paintings are magnificent pictures of a land that is burning hot, a land that is ancient, bursting with stories and dreams.