Elizabeth Gourlay, Kitha 4, 2014, Monotype Print

Kitha 4 (Abstract print) Monotype - Unframed This monotype is part of a series inspired by time spent working in Umbria, Italy. The work was inspired by Gourlay's response to the surrounding color and the geometry of the architecture. They also play with thoughts about sound and music and how that is reflected around a space. The title kitha is related to a series of works that she titled kithara which is the name for an ancient Greek instrument similar to a lyre. This series of monotypes was created at The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in the autumn of 2014. Elizabeth Gourlay is an American abstract artist whose work emerges from a progressive process of layering colour, lines and forms, informed both by inner emotional states and her observation of nature and architecture. She lives and works in Chester (CT). Gourlay’s work is featured in various private and corporate collections including The Lewitt Collection, The Marriott Family and Yale University. She is the recipient of several grants and fellowships, including two Individual Artist State Grants from the DECD/Connecticut Office of the Arts. In 2011 she was an invited artist in residence at the studio of Sol LeWitt, Spoleto, Italy. Elizabeth Gourlay uses a wide range of media such as oil, flashe, acrylic, ink and graphite to create artfully simple and strong compositions. Her work usually begins with layering washes of colours, then followed by drawings elements. The colours are sharply and fully selected, using a wide range of colour palettes from almost monochromatic to greatly polychromatic. Her paintings are metaphorical: some of her pieces allude to science by illustrating experiments with coordinate planes and bar graphs. Some refer to music with shapes defining sound and colour defining volume. Furthermore, some paintings suggest history and culture with covering layers of apparent worn or shredded paper. Gourlay thinks of her work as a meditation on colours, lines and forms, leading to a complex network of shifting shapes and colours. "The shapes and lines create my own vocabulary of abstract forms." She has an interest in elements found in nature, architecture and music, drawing lines, grids and geometric shapes to demonstrate it. Indeed, her work is often described by its musicality and architectonic connotations. The use of line suggests influences from Agnes Martin while her play of colour reminds Paul Klee’s work. Her compositions deal with order and chaos using a line, colour and shape.