Elizabeth Akehurst

Elizabeth Akehurst’s career did not begin with painting. She was a student of mathematics, and after graduating from the University of Kent with first-class honours in 1972, she continued postgraduate studies at Cambridge - where she was part of the first cohort of women admitted to King’s College - and then at Newcastle. However, a strong interest in painters and paintings has always formed an integral part of Elizabeth’s life.

After a short career in full-time teaching and starting a family, Elizabeth began exploring this interest in art. She exhibited her work regularly in the early 1990s. She also taught art for several years, acting as Medway Co-ordinator for South East Open Studios before setting aside these commitments to concentrate on her own practice.

Her art always draws on particular experiences, such as meals with friends, watching builders and decorators at work, or going to concerts; while her landscapes are inspired by the Medway area, which combines mudflats, reedbeds, and industry. Her paintings arise slowly out of a long period of work. Initially, rapid preliminary studies are made in pen, ink or watercolour. These sketches - which are sometimes supplemented by photographs - are used to produce numerous smaller pieces exploring form, composition and colour. Some of these may develop into larger watercolour, gouache or collage works. As the subject starts to become “known”, Elizabeth moves on to oil, creating a series of maybe five or more paintings at a time.

Sometimes the subject is considered from a viewpoint taken within the very subject itself, then drawn up from a birds-eye view perspective. Paint is applied using a range of brushes, rollers or even a palette knife. Additional line is added - a vital compositional element in Elizabeth’s work - with charcoal, oil pastel or the end of a brush. Texture and depth is created in planes; drawing the paint forwards or backwards animates the surface.

The paintings are worked over many times as the artist moves from one piece to another, experimenting with different forms until some element of that original event has been captured. By this time, the subject has acquired a life of its own.

Elizabeth’s work can be found in collections worldwide including New York, Amsterdam and Paris. She has also exhibited in solo shows across the UK.