elisabeth cummings: a still life

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Elisabeth CummingsA still life: 2014

Whaling Road Studios 2014

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Elisabeth Cummings2014 Monotypes Etchings Ceramics

King Street Galleryon William

www.kingstreetgallery.com.au

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Shell 2014 monotype 58x76cm

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The Green Rabbit 2014 monotype 56x74cm

5The Orange Table 2014 monotype 76x59cm

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Even with her landscape paintings, Elisabeth Cummings is drawn to the foreground rather than the big ‘out there.’ Her seductive wandering lines issue an intimate invitation to the curious, an entree to a milieu that becomes more complex with closer scrutiny.

In this current collection of monotypes and ceramics, it’s easy to imagine the artist at play, rendering her observations through a filter of inner space. She teases the eye with slight abstractions of colour and form, offset with more recognisable objects in a fine balance: the clutter of a kitchen sink, dining table debris, and various bric-a-brac assemblages as she creates a most convivial ambience.

There is a sense of Elisabeth puzzling out her process, making the familiar interesting with a looseness that belies her honed repertoire of techniques and practised hand. Through her marks of line and colour she builds a rarefied vibration; a

microcosmic edge that pulls us through and into a parallel world of whimsy and nostalgia.

Among the abundant fruit, mysterious cupboards, and seemingly fuelled by endless pots of coffee, several chance meetings populate the exhibition like guides through an imaginative realm. An elephant on the table, an incongruous green rabbit, a somnolent blue Siamese cat all take on the persona of still life. Cummings’ work, whether paintings, monotypes or ceramics radiate a lustrous finish, a marbled tension within her compositional space. Her own unique blend of artistic rhythms, textures and patterns describe a definitive language, unmistakeable and yet continually evolving. She challenges herself to illuminate the detritus of everyday life, and ultimately to burnish the human condition afresh with insightful warmth.

James Compton(with thanks to Pham Ngoc Tram) 2014

Elisabeth Cummings – Monotypes, Ceramics & Etchings

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Piero Still Life 2014 monotype 76x59cm

8 Coffee or Tea? 2014 monotype 76x59cm

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Striped Cups and Lily 2014 monotype 56x79cm

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Sake Bottle and Shells 2014 monotype 75x56.5cm

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Figs and Garlic 2014 monotype 56x76cm

12 J’s Cupboard 2014 monotype 76x56cm

13High Tea 2014 monotype 56x76cm

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15Elephant on My Table 2014 monotype 56x76cm

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Jean Luc 2014 monotype 56x76cm

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Crinums and Pomegranates 2014 monotype 56x74cm

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Chinese Pot 2014 monotype 57x76cm Bleu Cat, Blue Table 2014 monotype 56x76cm

19Mystery Cupboard 2014 monotype 74x54cm

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Coffee Pot and Pot Plant 2013 etching 51x40cm [sheet size]

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The Blue Jug 2013 etching 50.5x46cm [sheet size]

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Turkish Coast 2013 etching 50.5x40cm [sheet size]

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The Pot call the Jug Black 2013 etching 50.5x40.5cm [sheet size]

25The Kitchen Sink 2012 etching 40.5x50cm

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Among the Termite Mounds 2012 etching 60x80cm [sheet size] Evening Termite Mounds 2012 etching 60x80cm [sheet size]

27Out West 2012 etching 61x79.5cm [sheet size]

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Rainbow Over The Flinders 2013 etching 60x80cm [sheet size] Rain Storm 2011 etching 60x79cm [sheet size]

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Elisabeth New Zealand 2014Glennis, Elisabeth, Steve, Idris and Steve New Zealand 2014

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Louise Boscacci

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Peter O’Doherty New Zealand 2014

Full CV on www.kingstreetgallery.com.au

AcknowledgmentsPhotography: Michael Bradfield

Text: James ComptonDesign: Sam Woods

King Street Galleryon William

10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia

T: 61 2 9360 9727 art@kingstreetgallery.comwww.kingstreetgallery.com.au

Directors: Robert Linnegar and Randi Linnegar

Member of the Australian Commercial Galleries Assocation

Registered Valuer with the Australian Government Taxations Incentives for the Arts Scheme

Published by King Street Studios P/L 2014ISBN: 978-0-9875540-3-1