LIZ LUMLEY-SMITH (aka EM)
Pathways Through Colour
Colour can have a contrasting, emotional impact on us that can be both positive and negative, can clash, repel and attract.
Colour can have a contrasting, emotional impact on us that can be both positive and negative, can clash, repel and attract.
For our Hybrid exhibition in September 2023 I am making a set of 'artists' books' which explore the feelings colour evokes and inspires in us. For example:-
Red: passion, red in love, Ariadne's red thread, a gift to Theseus to see him safely through the labyrinth, red politics, 'red rag to a bull', life's blood.
While writing this I am minded of our furious planet Earth burning red infernos in the south and drowning grey blue floods in the north.
Blue: 'The colour of heaven', can be relaxing, is spiritual, yet we also feel blue, express our melancholy by singing the blues. It is a 'cool' colour but can also feel very cold and unfriendly.
Yellow: sunlight, flowers in Spring, brings warmth, suggests hope. Equally nature's yellows indicate poison, keep away, like adders and wasps. We use yellow in symbols alerting us to extreme danger as in radioactivity. Some of us feel disturbed even maddened by lemony yellows, sickness too is often yellow.
And how is it that a colour such as Black arouses powerful positive and negative feelings in us? Black velvet, 'the little black dress, kohl-ed eyes are sexy, exciting, black cat. . .or . . . black dog, pitch black/ without senses, black holes, doom.
Bearing in mind that in different cultures and religions colours have varying significance; like White: meaning purity and innocence in Christianity, death and mourning in others.
Think also of Green: growth, climate change, but also the green eyed monster; think of purple, orange, pink et al.
Method: Intending to continue my recycling theme of reclaiming old work I started this artists' books set by using existing paintings. Soon however I was making the paintings specifically with the colour in mind to convert into a book-object which would show its emotional pathway. I first make an A2 painting on watercolour paper using mixed media which I then fold, cut and glue into a little book and make its cover with the same materials. The books are hybrids, both paintings and books, old looking yet new. The covers have a weathered appearance like agèd tomes within which we hope to find a pathway towards a positive outcome.
The books are fragile, vulnerable, reminding us of our own mortality and, like the ensuing existence of planet Earth, they need to be treated with care to ensure a future.
My thanks to the late Derek Jarman for his emotionally engaging book Chroma and to Kassia St Clair for her book The Secret Lives Of Colour with its vivid narratives through the 'the cultural history of colour'. Thanks also to Victoria Finlay and Philip Ball.
Red: passion, red in love, Ariadne's red thread, a gift to Theseus to see him safely through the labyrinth, red politics, 'red rag to a bull', life's blood.
While writing this I am minded of our furious planet Earth burning red infernos in the south and drowning grey blue floods in the north.
Blue: 'The colour of heaven', can be relaxing, is spiritual, yet we also feel blue, express our melancholy by singing the blues. It is a 'cool' colour but can also feel very cold and unfriendly.
Yellow: sunlight, flowers in Spring, brings warmth, suggests hope. Equally nature's yellows indicate poison, keep away, like adders and wasps. We use yellow in symbols alerting us to extreme danger as in radioactivity. Some of us feel disturbed even maddened by lemony yellows, sickness too is often yellow.
And how is it that a colour such as Black arouses powerful positive and negative feelings in us? Black velvet, 'the little black dress, kohl-ed eyes are sexy, exciting, black cat. . .or . . . black dog, pitch black/ without senses, black holes, doom.
Bearing in mind that in different cultures and religions colours have varying significance; like White: meaning purity and innocence in Christianity, death and mourning in others.
Think also of Green: growth, climate change, but also the green eyed monster; think of purple, orange, pink et al.
Method: Intending to continue my recycling theme of reclaiming old work I started this artists' books set by using existing paintings. Soon however I was making the paintings specifically with the colour in mind to convert into a book-object which would show its emotional pathway. I first make an A2 painting on watercolour paper using mixed media which I then fold, cut and glue into a little book and make its cover with the same materials. The books are hybrids, both paintings and books, old looking yet new. The covers have a weathered appearance like agèd tomes within which we hope to find a pathway towards a positive outcome.
The books are fragile, vulnerable, reminding us of our own mortality and, like the ensuing existence of planet Earth, they need to be treated with care to ensure a future.
My thanks to the late Derek Jarman for his emotionally engaging book Chroma and to Kassia St Clair for her book The Secret Lives Of Colour with its vivid narratives through the 'the cultural history of colour'. Thanks also to Victoria Finlay and Philip Ball.
Back painting for Lapis Lazuli, ie ultramarine
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Lapis Lazuli: the book
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Detail from the yellow back painting: radioactivity symbol
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Ariadne's Red Thread: the book
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Back painting for Not Pitch Black, folded, not yet cut
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Not Pitch Black: the book
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Liz studied illustration and graphics in Toronto, later working in design, music and advertising studios in London. Disenchantment with the commercial sector led to her training in art therapy. She practised in the NHS, Social Services and in Charities, specialising in mental health with adults and children also with families traumatised by bereavement and life threatening illness.
She has an eclectic approach to her own art making employing a range of media, has shown in many art trails, group shows, and exhibited with Hybrid since 2010.
Since retiring from A.T. and spending more time in her studio Liz continues to reflect on her invaluable art psychotherapy experience and its influence on her own art . She also works for Amnesty International Books, Nordic Walks in green spaces and worries about the future of Earth for our descendants.
llumleysmith@gmail.com
Timeless Migrants: 2020
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They're All Leaving: 2020
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'Kurios' [papier mache] from her children's book: Kurios outside his world. 2018
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Migration: 2020
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