Eliza Glyn

Eliza is a New Zealand artist. Born in Dorset, England in 1975, Eliza moved to America in 1994 and graduated from Bennington College in Vermont with a Bachelor of Arts. In 2003, whilst living in Tucson, Arizona she studied drawing with Michael Cajero. She moved to New Zealand in 2008 and lives in Dunedin with her family.
Eliza paints predominantly in Gouache and Oils. Her subjects include landscapes, flora and still life.  Her local environment of West Harbour, Careys Bay, and the mouth of the Otago Harbour are key subjects in her latest show - Quiet Earth at Gallery De Novo (July 2020).
"I look at light and the very subtle changes in colour. Where dark and light are next to each other, this is where I like to focus".

Still Life Exhibition Statement: 
These still lives are snapshots of our table at home, everything leftover and quiet after the children leave for school. It occurred to me when I was doing the paintings just how close I feel to our cups and plates. We choose everything carefully and love seeing it everyday. The ceramics themselves feel like old friends, made by some of my favorite potters Richard Batterham, Katherine Smyth, Johnathan Garret and Amanda Shanley. It’s beautiful to think about another artist when I’m pouring my tea, or handing my daughter her toast. It’s funny how a potter can enter your home in such a disarming way, and then become so important.

Contrasting with the quiet pictures of our home life, I have a series of rough, fast paint sketches of the studio interior. These are warm ups for future compositions in which I play with colour, form and space. These less intimate items – plastic bottles and takeaway coffee cups – become objects to be manipulated in an almost sculptural way, so that background and foreground become equally important in these works.