Elizabeth’s painting practice focuses on the human portrait. Using oil on linen canvas, Elizabeth treats the canvas with multiple layers of Venetian marble. Her contemporary portraits, a fusion of oil and ground marble, exhale with a palpable, almost sculptural, and ethereal quality. Each stroke carries the essence of truth, as if the portrait is an observer, watching you or emerging from the very canvas.

“Dyer explained that each room had been important at times in her life and that she thus had a certain intimacy with the spaces. And yet, viewers can't help but notice that her depictions of them never feature people occupying the spaces. What we do sometimes see, on the other hand, is the trace of the various inhabitants' presence. I view these traces as a sort of personification of the memorial energy certain rooms seem to contain. And when combined with the formal layering of actual wallpaper with the painted image featured in a number of the works, I get the sense that Dyer is gesturing to the give and take relationship that defines our relationship with the environments that surround and define us.”

— Derek Flack, blogTO

Elizabeth’s portrait drawings are a combination of black Indian ink and pencil on mylar. The mylar allows for smooth pencil lines and gives room for the black ink to move organically around the paper creating a soft airy feel to her portraits.

art @ elizabethdyer.ca

Elizabeth’s illustrations are a combination of drawing and graphic design. She mixes her line drawing with photography and computer generated marks and gestures.

art @ elizabethdyer.ca

Elizabeth apprenticed under Peter Costello of Applied Arts Studios in Toronto, learning various techniques for creating large-scale hand-painted murals. Elizabeth uses a similar technique in creating murals as she does with her oil paintings. The results are a depth of colour and subtle texture that is unique to her style.

art @ elizabethdyer.ca