E. Liz Downing's portfolio

About E. Liz

I came to Maryland from Alabama's Auburn University, an agricultural college with a small but fierce
Art Department. Here in Baltimore, I studied under Grace Hartigan at the Hoffberger School of
Painting. In 1985, with Nancy Andrews and Michael Willis, I formed a musical performance art trio. In this ensemble, Lambs Eat Ivy, and its following incarnations, Girls Ranch, 3 Pigs Cafe, Radiant Pig and Lurch and Holler, I write songs, create musical plays, and create sets and… more

View E. Liz's Resume

The Ones To Whom I Refer

These are photographs which I have taken to inspire and inform my paintings. My primary interests are reflections, silhouettes and glowing light.

rising sun from canoe
through the trees
morning
underside of hanging gourd
night with moon
clouds-treetops.jpg
sunset from canoe
sunset
rising moon
gourds on wire

Ancestors, owls and landscapes

companions

oil on wood
owl-and-shaman.jpg
mud head on ghost island

oil on wood
armature of the sky

oil on wood 36'x28"
home

oil onwood
shaman with time as a stream

oil on wood
battle inside a netherlandish head

oil on wood
gnosis of animals

oil on wood
The crow's offering

Oil on wood..36" x 32", 2010
african mary and cosmic jesus

oil on wood

Masks, Butterflies and Netherlandish Girls

These drawings are 36" L x 24" W and are created with Pencil on paper.

Netherlandish girl..Saint Elizabeth

pencil on paper 36"x24"
drawing-3-again.jpg
Netherlandish girl

pencil on paper 36"x24"
dance
Love too heavy
drawing-8again.jpg
crow on an observant sunflower

Drawing on paper, 36"x24"
lover
fertility
Moth

Drawing on paper, 36"x24'

sounds and words

To create aural images as companions to visual images creates the full experience of a plane of existence. I collect sounds from beloved environments and wrap these sounds around words which activate sleeping symbols.

Knowing This 2010

Not a Charm of Finches will mesmerize you. A Parliment of Owls will not fault you. An unkindness of Ravens will not mock you. Let not a shadow fall on your moment.
Companion if you please go hand in hand with me.

organ, banjo and piano. 2010
A Fly's Lullabye, Summer Afternoon

Kazoo and Banjo, 2011
Dreaming While Hibernating

Musical Bottles and Voices 2011
Map of evolution on the palm of my hand.

oil on wood 2011
A flicker, A flower

Banjo and vocals.
Consider the World Like This.

Banjo and vocals 2008

Deer and Ghosts on the Tallapoosa River, oil paintings on wood and canvas

I am in the process of uncovering a mythology involving my ancestors whose burial sites were covered when the Tallapoosa River was dammed to form a lake. Now I canoe above them and try to hear their voices and conjure their images.

Indian Maiden and the Cart Driver

oil paint on the back of a wooden drawer
Deer Head-dress against a cloudy sky
a-christmas-card.jpg
flying ancestors

oil on wood 20"x15"
summer-7.jpg
Lemur with sunset face

oil on wood circular painting 28"L 28"W
story head

This is an oil painting of images sewn together as if needle pointed and mounted on a wooden post.
summer-painting.jpg
ghost in the sunset

oil on canvas
ghosts-and-ancestors.jpg