One of those Days

The artworks of Elizabeth Price

Elizabeth Price’s characterful sculptures are highly sought-after and collected worldwide. Her figures are predominantly female, with an occasional signature male figure accompanying her ladies as a support act.

She captures everyday moments in life, often with humorous, full-figured women. Echos of the late Bery Cook’s (OBE) paintings can be seen. Beryl’s lifelong work was dedicated to painting comical compositions of life’s daily encounters. She documented scenes in pubs, hen nights and people enjoying themselves. Simple life pleasures remind us of the good times that can easily be missed. Much like Beryl, Elizabeth is unassuming and private, preferring to express their inner flamboyance and extroverted persona through their artwork.

She says–

Figures are my visual language, my means of artistic expression. The work is sometimes all about people, their body language, mood, looks and stories. At other times it is shapes, patterns or objects that inspire, or abstract thoughts and concepts – I reinterpret them as figures.

She believes evolution has primed our brains to pick out faces, figures, and animals from what we see, and she is compelled to anthropomorphise what she witnesses. Her state of mind and recent experiences doubtless influence how the figures end up.

Her ideas either come in a flash or develop over time, prompted by personal experience, people-watching, conversations, or triggered by a mere passing commentary. Contemporary dance is an influence, as are media images and, of course, visual art. Sometimes, a title is the starting point for a piece; in other cases, the original idea cannot be expressed in words, so the title comes later.

Another draw to Elizabeth’s works is her Small Visitors series, reminiscent of The Borrowers— a fantasy novel by Mary Norton that was adapted into a TV series and films. The story is about tiny human-like creatures who live unseen in houses and seemingly borrow items from the humans that live there. Items that are borrowed are used as furniture or useful survival tools.

Elizabeth uses the visual messages of gesture and stance – for example, the tilt of a neck or the set of the shoulders – to express the state of mind or capture the moment in a narrative. The results can be serious, light-hearted, ambiguous, or enigmatic.