Elizabeth Turnbull 1936 -

Sydney-born Elizabeth Turnbull began painting, drawing and printmaking in Brisbane , Australia in 1972, having had no formal art training. Following a number of successful solo exhibitions in Brisbane she travelled overseas with her husband and family in 1976 and, during six years spent in Europe , worked and exhibited in both Spain and the UK .

Profoundly affected by the 1979 exhibition Outsiders at London 's Hayward Gallery - her first introduction to the concept of ‘outsider' art - she immediately recognised in it many things she had felt about her own art but could not express and, since then, she has seen herself as an ‘outsider' artist.

This feeling has been strengthened and deepened by several visits to Europe - with ‘outsider' art a major focus - by Elizabeth's participation in a number of important art festivals in Europe, notably the 6th and 7th International Festivals d'Art Singulier in Provence and her inclusion in the first major exhibition in Spain of ‘outsider art' (Veruela, June -August 2001).

An early interest in abstract themes, often inspired by organic forms, was by 1976 being replaced by a fascination for the figurative that pervades her later work. Her later painting and writing has become more deeply personal, being increasingly characterised by a highly individualistic exploration of her own inner self, linked in turn to strong themes of feminine spirituality.

Since late 2002 she and her husband have divided their time between their Brisbane home and a small cottage in NE Tasmania . Her Tasmanian experiences resulted in two exhibitions of paintings and assemblages – collectively entitled The Ancestors .

Speaking in December 2004 of these exhibitions Elizabeth said “ A symbol emerged for me in 2002 expressing thoughts and feelings I had held for a very long time of the concept of 'The Ancestors' - as all humankind and all nature, present in all of us, in our very cells and in everything that exists, and also seeing us and all nature as being present in them - this resonates to me with many of the concepts of Taoism and, more recently, quantum physics.

“We are very, very old - the stuff of stars and the sea - yet ever new.

“The first appearance of this symbol in my work was in two contributions to the 7th International Festival d'Art Singulier in Provence in 2002, one of which - an artist's book Self Portrait with the Ancestors - is included in these exhibitions.

“The other works have evolved since then from this concept and from the earth and nature of Tasmania .”