Elizabeth Hannaford is a contemporary painter living and working in London. She was born on a farm in Devon and her work is strongly linked to her early experiences of the Devon countryside and also to the remoteness of Dartmoor National Park. She originally practised as a City Lawyer and later as a State Registered Art Therapist. She has painted full time since 2000.
STATEMENT
My artistic practice explores the degree to which a painting can communicate not only a visual experience, but also ‘unpaintable’ ones, such as sound and emotion. Hence the abstraction in my work as I search for marks and washes to describe those things.
I’m always concerned with surface texture and see my paintings as physical objects. I like to use deep stretchers, where the sides of a work are very much part of it. At the same time I’m also interested in the traditional concern of the painter with the creation of illusory space. That sense of space, as well as of energy and movement, is informed by many years drawing the moving human figure. I consider that drawing underpins my practice.
I work in both oil and watercolour, striving to capture in my oil paintings the freedom and spontaneity of the latter. I resist overt figurative references, unless it seems a necessary part of what I am trying to communicate and can be absorbed organically into my composition.
I make all my oil paintings on the floor, even smaller work, pouring glazes of paint onto canvases over a period of time. I often add graphic marks as well as grit, sand or paint scrapings - even bleach when working on unprimed linen. I work quickly, but the process of completing a painting can take many weeks because the glazes of paint take time to dry and I can only judge the progress of a work when it is up on the wall. With newly stretched surfaces, I‘ll usually leave bare areas untouched in order to suggest ‘nothingness’ or silence, or to create a feeling of lightness and space. Creating new work by working over old paintings which no longer hold meaning for me, is also part of my practice. I love how their histories bleed through surfaces, informing the new work. I often make diptychs, triptychs and multi-panelled paintings, sometimes as many as ten – the last to be viewed or read like a line of poetry, or experienced over time, like a piece of music. I like how the gaps between panels emphasise the object nature of the work.
I sense alchemy in my work and know that a painting is finished when it takes on a life of its own, speaking back to me - sometimes through text, added while making a painting, or at the end.
New technology has enabled me to experiment and develop my interest in ‘painting as object’ and in the creation of energy and space. I see my digital work as an extension of my painting practice – painting, just not with paint! Neither hologram nor back-lit image, my method of presenting the 2-dimensional iPhone image makes it appear to occupy real space within a box frame, fusing within it and assuming a 3-dimensional presence. The technology suits the way I work, particular with music.
CV
SOLO SHOWS
2020 Green World Burning, (Broken World Series), Westminster Reference Library, St Martin’s Street, London WC2 (POSTPONED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS - see NEWS link for a virtual studio tour)
2017 Wine Art II Oddbins, London N8
2015 Less Abstract, More Real, Highgate Gallery, Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, London N6
2013 Wine Art (with the Wine Society & Poet in the City) Clifford Chance LLP, Canary Wharf, London E14
2011 KINGS PLACE London N1, Installation in concert with award-winning David Gordon Jazz Trio
2006 Spring Solo, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, 11 Pilgrim Street, London WC1
2005 Paint! ART FIRST, 9 Cork Street London W1
2000 Natural Forms, Row & Maw: Art at Fleet Place, London EC4
2001 Eat::Art E1 Gallery, 10 White’s Row, London E1
1996 Dual Perspectives, Diorama Gallery, 34 Osnaburgh Street, London NW1
1991 The Moving Figure, The Square Gallery, Highgate, London N6
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2020 “BEING WITH TREES”, Bermondsey Project Space, London SE1 - Invited by the Arborealists & Urban Contemporaries.
2019 ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY (RWA) Bristol BS8 1PX 167 Annual Open Exhibition
2019 “BRITISH PAINTING II”, Bermondsey Project Space, Bermondsey Street, London SE1 2019 “Highgate’s Historic Women”; launch of PINK PLAQUE PROJECT @ Lauderdale House, London N6 2018 ING DISCERNING EYE, Mall Galleries London SW1
2018 “Women Only”, THROWN, London N6
2018 “Random” Ply Gallery, Hornsey Town Hall N8, artist-led exhibition with Crouch End Open Studios
2017 21st NATIONAL OPEN ART EXHIBITION (NOA) Bargehouse, South Bank, London SE1
2017 ING DISCERNING EYE, Mall Galleries London
2017 “Summer Salon” Lubomirov / Angus Hughes Gallery London E5
2017 Society of Women Artists (SWA), Mall Galleries SW1 (Open Submission)
2016 THE SUNDAY TIMES WATERCOLOUR COMPETITION Mall Galleries SW1 (and touring)
2016 ART-ATHENA INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, Athens, ‘Platform Projects’, with Angus-Hughes
2013 ‘My Postcard’, ACME Project Space, London E2
2011 Shirley Crowther Contemporary Art, Hampstead Affordable Art Fair
2008 ART FIRST, 9, Cork Street, London W1
2007 ART FIRST, 9, Cork Street W1
2007 Collyer-Bristow Gallery, London WC1
2006 ART FIRST
2005 ART FIRST
2005 LONDON ART FAIR with Art First
2004 Collyer-Bristow Gallery WC1 - two shows
2003 ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS Summer Exhibition, London W1
2002 Collyer-Bristow Gallery WC1
1999 TATE REGENERATION PROJECT ‘Bankside Browser’, St Christopher’s House, SE1
1998 HUNTING ART PRIZES Royal College of Art, London SW7.
1998 Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Wales.
1998 Collyer-Bristow Gallery, London WC1.
1997 CHELTENHAM OPEN DRAWING COMPETITION
1997 ‘Regeneration: A celebration of Art In Southwark’, Price Waterhouse Building, London Bridge E1.
AWARDS, OPEN SUBMISSIONS
2019 ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY Bristol BS8 1PX 167 Annual Open Exhibition 2018 ING DISCERNING EYE, Mall Galleries London N6 – selected by Bridget McCrum & Nick Ross
2017 NATIONAL OPEN ART (NOA) 21st National Open Art Finalists’ Competition, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower, South Bank, SE1 - selected by Hughie O’Donoghue, Lorenzo Belenguer, David Remfrie, Cynthia Corbett, Kelvin Okafor
2017 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries SW1 - selected by Simon Tait
2017 Summer Salon, Lubomirov / Angus Hughes Gallery London E5 – open submission
2017 SWA Society of Women Artists, Mall Galleries SW1 - open submission
2016 Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries - selected by Ajash Bhatt, Sara Dudman, Simon Oldfield, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Louis Wise
2016 Athens International Art Fair, ‘Platform Projects’ with Lubomirov / Angus Hughes – open submission
2003 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts - selected by Anthony Wishaw
1999 Finalist International Emerging Artists Exhibition, The Limner Gallery, NYC
1998 HUNTING ART PRIZES Royal College of Art - selected by Tom Coates, William Packer, Reg Singh
1997 Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition
1995 ‘Southwark Open’ South London Gallery, London SE5.
ACQUISITIONS & COLLECTIONS
Corporate
Cable & Wireless Communications plc,
The Mill (Film and Video Co.) 40-41, Great Marlborough Street, London W1
Mayer Brown International plc, 201 Bishopsgate, London EC2Heathrow Airport Authority: permanent collection (shortlist)
Private
London, New York, San Francisco, Germany, France, Athens.
PUBLICATIONS
2019 FAD Magazine (Tabish Khan) rates British Painting II one of “top 7 shows to see in London” 2019 Evening Standard - Pink Plaque Scheme initiative ‘by several artists to create accreditation for Highgate’s historic remarkable women’
2018 Discerning Eye Catalogue featured an image of one of Hannaford’s selected iPhone works 2017 Hampstead & Highgate Express: Etcetera/Art Exhibitions
2015 Agenda Poetry Journal (founded by Ezra Pound) features music paintings & works on paper on front cover and inside.
2015 Hampstead & Highgate Express: ‘Landscapes and Soundscapes in Highgate’ - Alison Oldham
2009 Young Lawyer Magazine, “Down to a Fine Art’
2006 LINK Association of Women solicitors Magazine, ‘Legal Artist’
2005 The Week: ‘Where to buy …’
2005 Hampstead & Highgate Express: ‘Unusual Interface’
2004 RA Magazine, Winter issue, ‘Natural Women’
1997 Independent on Sunday, ‘Abstractly fabulous’: review of London Art House show,
1997 Evening Standard, Hot Tickets: Galleries, Choice by Kate Bernard
1991 Hampstead & Highgate Express: ‘A new brief for Hannaford’
PERFORMANCES & EVENTS
2019 Highgate’s Historic Women & Launch of the Pink Plaque Project - illustrated talk at Lauderdale House, London N6
2015 An Art and Music Conversation, Highgate Gallery, London N6, in collaboration with classical & jazz musician David Gordon: ‘One of England’s finest musicians’ Director London Chamber Orchestra; ‘One of our most brilliant pianists”’ London Jazz News
See below a film about the art/music collaboration which was shown during this event
2005 An Art and Music Evening, ART FIRST 9 Cork Street, W1, in collaboration with organist & composer Chris Bowers-Broadbent: ‘The style of the music is cool and contemporary … filtered through Bowers-Broadbent’s highly original mind‘, BBC Music Magazine.