- Portrait of a Swiss painter
“I paint earth’s forms with respect for the forces which created them millions of years ago, and their evolution in our environment today, their emerging and submerging is my challenge.
Weathering and erosion return material to the oceans. Metamorphic structures are uncovered. Imprints of life itself are exposed, but they will in time be erased or submerged. This relentless action is an inspiration.”
Born in Thun, a city located at the foot of the grandiose Swiss Alps, Eliane was raised in an art-inspired environment. Her father was so enthusiastic about abstract art that he took her for 30km long bicycle rides to see special exhibitions of modern art in Berne! These first encounters with contemporary art became a life long passion.
Eliane got inspired to do photographic work of the complex geological formations and rugged landforms in the mountains, where her husband worked for his geological and geochemical studies. These photographic studies became evident in her paintings.
In 1970, Eliane moved to Ireland, lived later for several years in Germany and then in France, before taking residence with her family in Ottawa, in 1984. After having raised her children, she was looking for a new challenge, which she found in painting. She began studying art at the Algonquin College in 1985. She then continued her studies at the Ottawa School of Art and also attended many workshops with professionals in the USA as well as in Switzerland. Eliane started painting in watercolour but found out soon, that her grand geological themes called for a different scale of work and medium. She changed to oil and acrylics on canvas, which allowed her to work much larger and with richer layers of colours and textures.
At the same time, she wanted to learn and understand the different printmaking techniques and explored engraving, etching, wood block printing and monotypes. This led her to do mixed media techniques, integrating prints, photos and collages in her work
Eliane get inspired by Nature’s forces, which shape the structure of landform. She likes to travel and explore new environments like the Ochers in the South of France, the bare mountains in Crete or the spectacular colours of the rock formations in New Mexico.
Her fascination of structures, patterns, organic shapes and lines in landforms seen from the air is her theme for the next exhibition. These structures can also be found in minute details of the earth like in polished sections of minerals and ore. This comparison will be explored in the upcoming exhibition at the Shenkman Art Center in Orleans, in June 2009.
Within the scope of Solo and Group exhibitions the artist’s work had been showed at different festivals and in several galleries such as the Ottawa Art Gallery, the Gallery J.C. Bergeron and The Gloucester City Hall. In addition to winning numerous awards from the Ottawa Watercolour Society and the Orléans Visual Art Center, Eliane is the recipient of grants from the Ontario Arts Council. Her work is owned by private collections in different countries such as USA, Japan or Switzerland as well as in corporate collections in Ontario and Québec
Contact information: eliane@rogers.com
Website: http://www.artengine.ca/esaheurs/
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