Elizabeth Challinor is an abstract artist living on the Upper Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Elizabeth was born in London, England in 1959 and has spent the majority of her life in British Columbia. She attended the Victoria College of Art from 1977 to 1979 during a vibrant time in the Victoria art community. During those years she studied with painters James Gordaneer, Jack Wise, Flemming Jorgensen and Bill Porteous. Ms. Challinor first exhibited her work in a group show at the Victoria Art Gallery in 1978.
Elizabeth disappeared into academia, world travel and family life for over 20 years but had never stopped seeing paintings everywhere. In 2002, she recaptured her love of making art in the Sunshine Coast community of Powell River.
Ms. Challinor has since taken workshops with David Alexander, Val Nelson, Justin Ogilvie, John MacDonald and Rick Cepella, and has been greatly inspired by their work. She works mainly in oil and acrylic, and moves between thick and highly-textured medium, to thin and transparent, achieved by the application and removal of paint. Her subject matter springs mainly from the landscape and the shapes in nature.
Elizabeth has participated in group and solo shows through the Malaspina Art Society and the Powell River Art Centre, and has contributed paintings to various fundraising events, including for the Schizophrenia Society, Church of the Assumption and for the building of the Irudapatyam Medical Clinic in South India. She has maintained a continuous and changing exhibit in the Powell River Town Centre Mall since August of 2015 with the intention of putting art in a public space where anyone and everyone can have the chance to look at art.
Elizabeth is reluctant to take much credit for her work and will often quote the words of her teacher James Gordaneer: “I go to the studio every day so I am there when something happens”. Elizabeth explains that she feels lucky enough to have been present when that providential moment has taken place, and adds that she will always begin by making the sign of the cross.
