Elisabeth Cummings facts for kids

Elisabeth Cummings, born in Brisbane in 1934, is a famous Australian artist. She is well known for her large, colourful abstract paintings and her printmaking. Elisabeth has won many important art awards, like the Fleurieu Art Prize and the Portia Geach Portrait Prize. Her artworks are kept in major collections all over Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Queensland Art Gallery. She became widely recognised later in her career and is considered one of Australia's most important artists.

Early Life and Discovering Art

Elisabeth Cummings was born on June 3, 1934, in Brisbane, Queensland. During World War II, her family moved to the countryside for a while before returning to their home in Alderley. Their home was surrounded by beautiful bushlands.

The Cummings family also had a holiday home at Currumbin on the Gold Coast. As a child, Elisabeth loved to paint watercolour pictures of the landscapes there. Today, the Australian bush and Currumbin are still important subjects in her landscape paintings.

Elisabeth's mother, a primary school teacher, would set up still life scenes for Elisabeth and her brother, Malcolm, to draw. But her father, Robert Cummings, who was an architect and an art collector, encouraged them to draw whatever they wanted. Her father was also a trustee at the Queensland Art Gallery. Elisabeth often went to painting workshops there, led by Australian artist Vida Lahey.

Learning to Be an Artist

When Elisabeth was young, many artists, like Donald Friend and Len and Kathleen Shillam, visited her family home. At first, Elisabeth thought about studying architecture. However, after meeting and painting with Margaret Cilento, she decided to go to art school instead.

From 1953 to 1957, she studied at the National Art School in Sydney. There, she learned from talented artists like Douglas Dundas and Godfrey Miller. At art school, Elisabeth saw the work of other young Australian artists, which really helped her develop her own style. Some artists who inspired her during this time included Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston, and Fred Williams.

In 1958, Elisabeth won the NSW Traveling Art Scholarship. Then, in 1960, she received the Dyason Bequest. These awards helped her travel around Europe for the next ten years. In 1961, she studied at Oskar Kokoschka’s School of Vision in Salzburg, Austria. After that, she went to Florence, Italy. She spent about ten years living and studying in Italy and Paris. In Florence, she met her husband, Jamie Barker, who was also a painting student.

Elisabeth's art was influenced by both European and Australian artists. Some of these included Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, and Margaret Olley. In 1968, she returned to Australia and settled in Sydney. The next year, she started teaching art part-time at East Sydney Technical College.

Elisabeth's Artworks

Elisabeth Cummings is known for using many different art forms. She is celebrated as a "colourist" painter, meaning she uses colour in a very special way. She works in painting, printmaking, drawing, and even ceramics.

Her art is inspired by the Australian bush, and by feelings of place and memory. These ideas are often seen in her semi-abstract landscapes, as well as her paintings of interiors (inside rooms) and still lifes. Elisabeth often starts her paintings by making many quick sketches of a scene. These sketches then become the base for her larger, finished artworks.

Her paintings often have thick, textured surfaces with complex marks and bright colours. Some of her well-known interior paintings include Journey Through The Studio (2004) and Inside The Yellow Room (2005). Her landscape paintings include Arkaroola landscape (2005) and Edge of the Simpson Desert (2011).

Working and Living at Wedderburn

From 1969 to 2001, Elisabeth Cummings worked part-time as an art teacher at places like the City Art Institute and the National Art School. While teaching, she continued to paint on her own. She won awards like the 1974 Grafton Prize.

Since 1976, Elisabeth Cummings has lived and worked at her studio in Wedderburn. This is a special place for artists outside Sydney.

Later Achievements

For many years, Elisabeth Cummings worked quietly in her studio without much public attention. Some people even called her ‘The Invisible Woman of Australian Art’. But Elisabeth didn't mind, saying, "I like anonymity."

Her first big exhibition, called "Elisabeth Cummings 65-96," happened when she was 62. It was held at the Campbelltown Art Gallery in New South Wales. In 2012, she had another major exhibition called ‘Luminous: Survey Exhibition Landscapes of Elizabeth Cummings’ at the SH Ervin Gallery in Sydney.

Today, Elisabeth Cummings' artworks are part of many important public collections across Australia. These include the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Queensland Art Gallery. In 2011, when she was 77, Elisabeth was awarded the Order of Australia Medal. This was to recognise her great contributions to the visual arts in Australia. In 2018, artist Noel Thurgate painted her portrait, Elisabeth Cummings in her studio at Wedderburn, 1974 and 2018, which was a finalist for the Archibald Portraiture Prize.

Elisabeth travels often and has taken part in artist residencies and exhibitions both in Australia and overseas. In 2014, at age 81, she was an artist-in-residence and had an exhibition in Hong Kong. That same year, she was part of a group of nine Australian artists who had an exhibition at the Waiheke Arts Centre in New Zealand. Elisabeth was also involved in a travelling exhibition called YOUR FRIEND THE ENEMY. For this project, Australian and New Zealand artists were invited to Gallipoli, Turkey, to paint the shores of Anzac Cove.

Exploring Printmaking

In 2001, Elisabeth Cummings started to explore printmaking, especially etching. She learned about it through a workshop with Michael Kempson at Cicada Press in Sydney. This studio works with UNSW Art & Design. Elisabeth took part in a program where artists create prints with the help of students. She has continued to visit Cicada Press weekly to work on her prints. Her printmaking explores similar ideas to her paintings, mainly landscapes and interiors.

She also created monoprints through Whaling Road Studios. The Cruthers Collection of Women's Art at the University of Western Australia has some of her prints, including three lithographs and a silkscreen print called Billabong (1999). In 2017, Elisabeth donated a large collection of 85 of her prints and etchings to the New England Regional Art Museum.

Creating Ceramics

Cummings has also worked with ceramics and sculpture. She made small interior scenes with figures out of clay with Lino Alvarez. She also created small figurative sculptures from bronze. In 2012, she worked with Louise Boscacci to make clear porcelain plates and platters. Elisabeth painted on these pieces. The flat shape of the plates was chosen to look like the salt-covered clay pans found in northern Queensland. This project was called "Cicada Waterfall," named after the cicadas heard in the bush around Elisabeth's Wedderburn home. These ceramic pieces were shown in 2014 at King Street Gallery in Sydney.

The Wedderburn Art Community

In 1970, Elisabeth Cummings started camping in a tent on bushland owned by Barbara and Nick Romalis at Wedderburn, near Sydney. The Romalis family generously gave Elisabeth ten acres of land to build an art studio. Other artists, like Roy Jackson, Joan Brassil, and Fred Braat, joined her there.

The group then bought another 15 acres from the Romalis family and invited John Peart to join them. Together, they formed a group called Widden Weddin. Moving to Wedderburn helped Elisabeth's paintings become more about the process of painting itself, rather than just the subject. Both Elisabeth and John Peart have worked to protect the environment of Wedderburn from development.

In 1994, Elisabeth's small studio was destroyed by bushfires, and many of her artworks were lost. After this fire, Elisabeth built a larger studio attached to her mud brick house on the land. Her 2001 painting, After the Fire, Wedderburn, shows what the area looked like after the fires. Sadly, her long-time friend and fellow artist John Peart passed away in 2013 due to smoke from a later fire.

Where to See Her Art

Elisabeth Cummings' artworks are held in many public and private collections. Here are some of them:

• Artbank, Australia
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
• National Gallery of Australia, ACT
• Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD
• Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
• New England Regional Art Museum, NSW
• University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, QLD
• Waiheke Art Gallery, NZ

Solo Exhibitions

Elisabeth Cummings has had many solo exhibitions where her work was the main focus. Some of these include:

• 2014: A Still Life, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
• 2013: Elisabeth Cummings [a selection of works 1982-2013], King Street Gallery on William
• 2012: Luminous: Survey Exhibition Landscapes of Elisabeth Cummings, SH Ervin, Sydney
• 2011: Elisabeth Cummings, New Paintings, King Street Gallery on William
• 2010: Paper Trail: 30 Years, King Street Gallery on William
• 1996: Survey Show (1965-1995), Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, NSW

Awards and Residencies

Elisabeth Cummings has received many awards and participated in artist residencies:

• 2014: Waiheke Community Art Gallery, New Zealand (Residency)
• 2014: The Nock Art Foundations, Hong Kong (Residency)
• 2011: Awarded OAM for her services to visual arts in Australia
• 2000: Fleurieu Prize for Landscape, S.A.
• 1996: Mosman Art Prize, NSW
• 1992: Tattersall's Club Art Prize, Qld
• 1972: Portia Geach Portrait Prize, Sydney
• 1958: NSW Travelling Art Scholarship