ABOUT
Liminal Gallery is delighted to present ‘As Though I Had Wings’ an online solo exhibition by Liz Crossfield. Layered abstract marks with spring-like colouring lay the foundations for Crossfield’s beautiful canvases. Detectible paintings run amok with expressive mark-making
and a rich vibrancy. Full of wonderment and curiosity, the artist takes the viewer onto a journey, seeing the world through her extraordinary lens.
​
‘As Though I Had Wings’ forms part of an ongoing series entitled 3 Works For 3 Weeks, an innovative take on the traditional solo exhibition promoting slow looking and true engagement with the artist, the artworks and the concepts behind them. Each exhibition in
the series features 3 artworks alongside text and detail images to give an intimate insight.
The exhibitions run for just 3 weeks and all invited artists are either national or international, but are currently working within the UK and Republic of Ireland, to show the breadth and diversity of art available across the countries.
Scroll down to view the artworks and their accompanying texts.
For all purchase enquires please get in touch.
DETAIL IMAGES OF 'THIS WOMAN'S WORK'
WITH THE FIRST PART OF A Q&A WITH THE ARTIST
Liminal: Tell me, what is your work about?
Crossfield: This question is helping me to write my thesis! The message in the work is one of hope and dialogues with the increasing connections to the Feminine, a genderless mode of inherited being.
My understanding, from reading about the Psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s work with the psyche, is that he framed the Feminine Archetype as patterns of behaviour that instinctively connect to birth, being alive, relatedness through feeling, yin or lunar qualities, nature and its processes and the earth.
‘One of the ways that some Jungians and others view our current era is as the end of a period of predominantly Masculine values (yang or solar values, including direct action, clarity, certainty and truth) and the beginning of a period in which the Feminine and Masculine are in greater balance.’ Gary Bobroff, Carl Jung, Knowledge in a Nutshell
I too believe that this is what we are witnessing today, the Feminine is coming into greater balance with the Masculine; the Feminine’s love, respect and complete compassion for all, including the earth and the universe, is rising up.
We are witnessing the balancing of the Feminine right now, we can see her within pro-planet marches, campaigns for acceptance and respect for diversity and now on our television screens during this shameful war on Ukraine. Notice the emotion, the love and the compassion for others; notice the young and the elderly being carted off for standing up to the Masculine, this is the Feminine Archetype bringing harmony and balance.
My work instinctively connects with this inherited Feminine mode of being, with Mother Earth and with the archetype of the goddess; if it can bring some hope and a little joy to the viewer, then that’s heartening.
Liminal: I find so much joy in looking at your work, is that what you aim to communicate with your viewer?
Crossfield: Thank you, I’m delighted to hear that, although I have to confess creating an emotive response from the viewer is never my intention when making work but a rewarding by-product of making simple and honest work about emotion. Luckily, emotion is universal.
Agnes Martin points out:
‘An artist cannot and does not prepare for a certain response. He does not consider the response but simply follows his inspiration’.
Making the work is instinctive and comes from feelings and the dialogue is an intimate one with paint, psyche and the interaction with the nervous system. Making work becomes reparational and this is achieved through yoga breathing techniques, listening to particular emotive music and connecting from soul to easel. Painting grounds and connects to my emotion, and allows me to express in paint what I’m often unable to voice with words.
And yes, on reflection, the work is all about joy, losing joy, looking for joy and finding joy. I think one has to explore the sorrow to truly experience the hope and then appreciate the joy. I think you can find this sadness, hope and joy by making work directly from your heart. My art aims to communicate truthful, honest heart-work about emotion.
Liminal: You are about to graduate from City & Guilds Art School, how has your experience been and what are your plans for after graduation?
​
Crossfield: I am so happy I chose City and Guilds. The School has been so supportive, with nurturing tutors especially during the pandemic. They were there for us 100% and we are all really grateful.
I had to defer a year from C&G for family reasons, I’m at that stage of life where I’m responsible for my Dad with advanced dementia and supporting adolescents, all who have experienced lock-down and isolation. Isolation is used in prisons, and we now have a world of very fragile young adults, many who are wounded and suffering in silence. I’m back at CGLART to complete my Master’s Degree this month and can’t wait.
When I’ve got my Masters and my energy, and when time away from my own practice allows; I would welcome the opportunity to share and facilitate the possibilities of some reparation through painting with teens and young adults. I could make use of both my restorative yoga teacher qualification and my PGCE to share my knowledge and experience with those suffering with stress and anxiety; that’s my little dream. I’d like to introduce them to the language of paint in a way that is mindful and healing, and welcome all.
This younger generation coming through are so worldly wise, highly intelligent, deeply intuitive and their emotional intelligence is off the scale. I just love being in their company, their thoughts and ideas are so generous, they give me hope for our planet. It is a privilege to spend time with them. I’m all too aware how much this heightened sensitivity that most of them possess can make them vulnerable and the reason they are currently wounded. They have so much to deal with, environmentally, the pandemic and now shockingly, War. I digress but I worry very much for our youth.
Liminal: Your work explores mythologies, folklore and fairy-tales, what attracts you to these and how do they influence your work?
Crossfield: I’ve a sense of the lightness of being and the weight of the world and I suppose the fairy-tales are often dark and connected to the weight of the world; they also must link back to childhood-reveries and all the Ladybird fairy-tale books I looked at as a child. Reading has always been a bit of a struggle but I loved the pictures. The Princess and the Pea was my favourite. During my MA I have been investigating my practice and process and so often it takes me right back to nostalgic times, for example when Dad used to take me to my ballet class at the end of his work day, I do love the ballet; I’m fascinated by what a body can do and love the romantic rhythm of dance.
‘The seasons of memory are beautifying. When one goes off dreaming to the bottom of their simplicity, into the very centre of their value, the seasons of childhood are the seasons of the poet.’ Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie. Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos
I’m very drawn to the feminine and can’t get enough of Goddesses especially Ancient Egyptian and Greek ones, I’ve been reading children’s books about them. I’m inspired by the Goddess Maat, and like her I’m staunchly for truth, justice and harmony. This is probably why I’m curious about female mythologies. I’m also fascinated by Jungian psychoanalysis and I’ve been learning all about the feminine archetype such as the wild woman. There is definitely a sense of female empowerment in a lot of my work but mostly it’s about the non-gendered feminine. I’ve realised that the feminine is something very much alive within all, not just females.
DETAIL IMAGES OF 'SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN'
WITH THE FINAL PART OF A Q&A WITH THE ARTIST
Liminal: Your colour palette leans towards the pastel, soft pinks and green, how do you select your palette and would you say you lean more towards a colour? Which colour would that be?
Crossfield: I used to make work that contained a lot of dark colour and fairly angry marks that were inside me. Emily Ball, an excellent painter that I admire, pointed this out. She asked ‘surely painting this way can’t make you feel good, why don’t you paint the joy and celebrate the feminine?’ Lightbulb moment. Painting feelings of peace, hope and joy can be so healing, one is painting oneself back to health. I currently seem to wear a lot of zingy lime greens and blossoming pinks; my favourite colours perhaps? The viewer hopefully can experience the joy in my work by absorbing the colour and mark; art can be uplifting for both the artist and the audience. Painting has transformative powers especially for those that are ready to be transformed.
Liminal: Do you watch or listen to anything while you paint?
​
Crossfield: I could never watch anything while I paint, my focus is all about allowing the painting to make itself and I get really bloody ratty if I’m interrupted. I always listen to music though. Music transports me, it engages my energy and helps to draw out the emotion. I mostly listen to goddesses: Kate Bush; Joni Mitchell; Aretha Franklin; Joy Crookes; and sometimes George Michael will blast out.
Liminal: You are about to graduate from City & Guilds Art School, how has your experience been and what are your plans for after graduation?
​
Crossfield: I am so happy I chose City and Guilds. The School has been so supportive, with nurturing tutors especially during the pandemic. They were there for us 100% and we are all really grateful.
I had to defer a year from C&G for family reasons, I’m at that stage of life where I’m responsible for my Dad with advanced dementia and supporting adolescents, all who have experienced lock-down and isolation. Isolation is used in prisons, and we now have a world of very fragile young adults, many who are wounded and suffering in silence. I’m back at CGLART to complete my Master’s Degree this month and can’t wait.
When I’ve got my Masters and my energy, and when time away from my own practice allows; I would welcome the opportunity to share and facilitate the possibilities of some reparation through painting with teens and young adults. I could make use of both my restorative yoga teacher qualification and my PGCE to share my knowledge and experience with those suffering with stress and anxiety; that’s my little dream. I’d like to introduce them to the language of paint in a way that is mindful and healing, and welcome all.
This younger generation coming through are so worldly wise, highly intelligent, deeply intuitive and their emotional intelligence is off the scale. I just love being in their company, their thoughts and ideas are so generous, they give me hope for our planet. It is a privilege to spend time with them. I’m all too aware how much this heightened sensitivity that most of them possess can make them vulnerable and the reason they are currently wounded. They have so much to deal with, environmentally, the pandemic and now shockingly, War. I digress but I worry very much for our youth.
Liminal: Your work explores mythologies, folklore and fairy-tales, what attracts you to these and how do they influence your work?
Crossfield: I’ve a sense of the lightness of being and the weight of the world and I suppose the fairy-tales are often dark and connected to the weight of the world; they also must link back to childhood-reveries and all the Ladybird fairy-tale books I looked at as a child. Reading has always been a bit of a struggle but I loved the pictures. The Princess and the Pea was my favourite. During my MA I have been investigating my practice and process and so often it takes me right back to nostalgic times, for example when Dad used to take me to my ballet class at the end of his work day, I do love the ballet; I’m fascinated by what a body can do and love the romantic rhythm of dance.
‘The seasons of memory are beautifying. When one goes off dreaming to the bottom of their simplicity, into the very centre of their value, the seasons of childhood are the seasons of the poet.’ Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie. Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos
I’m very drawn to the feminine and can’t get enough of Goddesses especially Ancient Egyptian and Greek ones, I’ve been reading children’s books about them. I’m inspired by the Goddess Maat, and like her I’m staunchly for truth, justice and harmony. This is probably why I’m curious about female mythologies. I’m also fascinated by Jungian psychoanalysis and I’ve been learning all about the feminine archetype such as the wild woman. There is definitely a sense of female empowerment in a lot of my work but mostly it’s about the non-gendered feminine. I’ve realised that the feminine is something very much alive within all, not just females.
Liminal: Who or what are your greatest influences?
Crossfield: My heightened Senses
Being in.... Nature. Growth, blossoming and the cycle of life.
‘An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.’ Henri Matisse.
Listening to...Little Simz ‘Woman to woman, I just wanna see you glow’ Goddess and Kate Bush, total legend
Looking at.... work by William Blake; Henri Matisse; The Female Surrealists, especially Leonora Carrington, Florine Stettheimer and Dorothea Tanning and Abstract expressionists Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly. Can’t wait for colourist Milton Avery at RA this July.
Enjoying.... work by Katherine Bradford, Kiki Smith, Lubaina Himid and Rose Wylie. Equally happy in a room with Rachel Jones, Jade Fadojutimi’s or Joe Packer’s work.
Reading.... Mary Oliver poetry, Agnes Martin’s Writings and Carl Jung’s psychoanalysis.
Practising....Vanda Scaravelli yoga (or meant to be, when I remember that my body needs a mini-break).
Liminal: Do you have any other exhibitions or projects coming up in 2022?
​
Crossfield: I’ve been invited to take part in an exciting group show in Whitechapel in September with fellow former CGLART mates, followed by my end of year Masters’ group show at City and Guilds School of Art London, in October. In the mean-time I’m painting, collaging and trying to write my thesis, in-between moving home and moving studio.
Roses
by Mary Oliver
Everyone now and again wonders about
those questions that have no ready
answers: first cause, God's existence,
what happens when the curtain goes
down and nothing stops it, not kissing,
not going to the mall, not the Super
Bowl.
​
"Wild roses," I said to them one morning.
"Do you have the answers? And if you do,
would you tell me?"
​
The roses laughed softly. "Forgive us,"
they said. "But as you can see, we are
just now entirely busy being roses."
DETAIL IMAGES OF 'NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY'
WITH THE SECOND PART OF A Q&A WITH THE ARTIST
Liminal: There is an incredible amount of layering to your work, do you find that you’re quite brutal with painting over them or are you more precious?
Crossfield: I am fairly brutal when it comes to deconstructing and reconstructing my work. I love making collage with torn up failed works. There is something deeply cathartic ripping up one’s work in order to recreate something closer to your feelings. I can pick up a canvas I’ve worked on a year ago and start digging in, painting over it and carefully adapting and keeping some existing marks. I love the extraordinary powers of erasing marks, editing out and also applying a loose wash to certain areas; I’m concerned with recreating diaphanous qualities, a frisson, the feminine.
Liminal: Do you sit or stand to paint?
Crossfield: Is sitting to paint a thing? Maybe I’ll discover this when I can no longer stand. I’m often in a state of high energy when I’m making work, I have to remind myself to slow it down, be gentle and take breaks. I’m fairly physical at the wall or easel, I often knock drawing boards onto my head or tip easels over. I quite like working on the floor but my knees don’t. I also enjoy experimenting with my bodies position and the marks I can make, yoga comes into it a bit, especially at the beginning of a painting. Just get the bloody paint down then we can see where it wants to go. I think I’m probably an instinctive painter.
Liminal: The dashed line seems to be a reoccurring motif, what is it that draws you to this mark?
Crossfield: During the pandemic when everyone’s worlds shrank, I discovered the joy of walking through a nearby meadow. I inhaled the landscape, absorbed all the sensations, scent, touch etc. and the beauty that nature offered in that meadow was mesmerizing. Back in the studio I released those sensations and memories, and dialogued with my own feelings. The reoccurring line motif could be my footpath or some sort of body-mapping, I really don’t know. I seem to often make work from the aerial view, AS THOUGH I HAD WINGS, as if I’m up in the sky looking down at the bigger picture. I think if you can put your logical mind to one side, the painting pretty much makes itself.
Liminal: How does your past career as a fashion stylist inform your practice now?
Crossfield: When I left the world of fashion, I locked it all away inside a cupboard somewhere and threw away the key for years, but childhood reveries of watching mum styling herself to go out, my beloved Bunty Magazine with the cut-out Bunty wardrobe and attending London College of Fashion plus all the shoots working with models and photographers becomes part of your DNA. I learnt so much from those years at Condé Nast and as Fashion Correspondent at GMTV, they are a part of me and will always feed my work.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
DETAIL IMAGES OF 'THIS WOMAN'S WORK'
WITH THE FIRST PART OF A Q&A WITH THE ARTIST
Liminal: Tell me, what is your work about?
Crossfield: This question is helping me to write my thesis! The message in the work is one of hope and dialogues with the increasing connections to the Feminine, a genderless mode of inherited being.
My understanding, from reading about the Psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s work with the psyche, is that he framed the Feminine Archetype as patterns of behaviour that instinctively connect to birth, being alive, relatedness through feeling, yin or lunar qualities, nature and its processes and the earth.
‘One of the ways that some Jungians and others view our current era is as the end of a period of predominantly Masculine values (yang or solar values, including direct action, clarity, certainty and truth) and the beginning of a period in which the Feminine and Masculine are in greater balance.’ Gary Bobroff, Carl Jung, Knowledge in a Nutshell
I too believe that this is what we are witnessing today, the Feminine is coming into greater balance with the Masculine; the Feminine’s love, respect and complete compassion for all, including the earth and the universe, is rising up.
We are witnessing the balancing of the Feminine right now, we can see her within pro-planet marches, campaigns for acceptance and respect for diversity and now on our television screens during this shameful war on Ukraine. Notice the emotion, the love and the compassion for others; notice the young and the elderly being carted off for standing up to the Masculine, this is the Feminine Archetype bringing harmony and balance.
My work instinctively connects with this inherited Feminine mode of being, with Mother Earth and with the archetype of the goddess; if it can bring some hope and a little joy to the viewer, then that’s heartening.
Liminal: I find so much joy in looking at your work, is that what you aim to communicate with your viewer?
Crossfield: Thank you, I’m delighted to hear that, although I have to confess creating an emotive response from the viewer is never my intention when making work but a rewarding by-product of making simple and honest work about emotion. Luckily, emotion is universal.
Agnes Martin points out:
‘An artist cannot and does not prepare for a certain response. He does not consider the response but simply follows his inspiration’.
Making the work is instinctive and comes from feelings and the dialogue is an intimate one with paint, psyche and the interaction with the nervous system. Making work becomes reparational and this is achieved through yoga breathing techniques, listening to particular emotive music and connecting from soul to easel. Painting grounds and connects to my emotion, and allows me to express in paint what I’m often unable to voice with words.
And yes, on reflection, the work is all about joy, losing joy, looking for joy and finding joy. I think one has to explore the sorrow to truly experience the hope and then appreciate the joy. I think you can find this sadness, hope and joy by making work directly from your heart. My art aims to communicate truthful, honest heart-work about emotion.
Liminal: Your mark-making feels incredibly energetic, do you have a plan or are your paintings intuitive?
Crossfield: My practice is high energy, intuitive, intimate and soul-searching. My studio feels like the stage, with everything I need waiting in the wings - paper or canvas, paints and palette, oil bars plus nostalgic imagery. Fabrics and feathers hang around the studio and words that pinpoint feelings are scribbled in charcoal on the wall. Old works are nearby and ready to be torn up and reconstructed. The music is set and the lights go up ready for the intuitive process of creating.
Liminal: Do you work on the paintings one at a time or several at once?
Crossfield: Always at least three at a time, sometimes six, depending how large they are. Recently my energy levels have shrunk and therefore my work has needed to downsize too. I work mostly on paper, I just prefer paper. My background as a magazine editor might have something to do with the paper love thing. I’m not into kindles or online reading, give me a book or paper any-day and then after, always recycled or kept close.
Bearing Witness by John Egan
a magnolia is out
its pink blossoms flowering
its beauty uplifts my heart
primroses and celandines
spring up like a yellow tide
glowing with a golden warmth
the first white flakes of blackthorn
blooms are scattered in the hedge
to announce its innocence
hellebores droop demurely
clustered shyly in the shade
shimmering with ecstasy
a verdancy is coming
as leaves unfurl round branches
as sap rises in the trees
fresh diggings round badger setts
are signalling new cycles
of regenerated life
my joy in seeing all this
is tempered by a knowledge
that with each year wild is less
PRESS RELEASE
Liminal Gallery is delighted to present ‘As Though I Had Wings’ an online solo exhibition by Liz Crossfield. Layered abstract marks with spring-like colouring lay the foundations for Crossfield’s beautiful canvases. Detectible paintings run amok with expressive mark-making and a rich vibrancy. Full of wonderment and curiosity, the artist takes the viewer onto a journey, seeing the world through her extraordinary lens.
Joyful bursts of colour, formations of recognisable elements peep into consciousness, before they are swept away in a haze of rhythmic colour. Crossfield’s practice is semi-autobiographical and has museological references, focussing on performativity, spatiality and a celebration of the feminine. Her studio practice is instinctive, intuitive and connects with the felt sense, inner voice, and the wild underworld. The work communicates the contradictional feelings of both the joy and fear of life, the lightness of being and the weight of the world.
‘As Though I Had Wings’ forms part of an ongoing series entitled 3 Works For 3 Weeks, an innovative take on the traditional solo exhibition promoting slow looking and true engagement with the artist, the artworks and the concepts behind them. Each exhibition in the series features 3 artworks alongside text and detail images to give an intimate insight. The exhibitions run for just 3 weeks and all invited artists are either national or international, but are currently working within the UK and Republic of Ireland, to show the breadth and diversity of art available across the countries.
Each Tuesday at 10am throughout the duration of the exhibition, Liminal Gallery will release a new artwork accompanied by a Q&A with the artist and detail images onto the dedicated Viewing Room found on www.liminal-gallery.com.
​
To purchase please get in touch with us info@liminal-gallery.com