Artist Info
Elizabeth Blair-Matisz
With a career rooted primarily in watercolours and mixed media, Vancouver-born artist Elizabeth Louise Blair-Matisz moved at age five to Lethbridge, where she spent most of her life, although she continued to visit Vancouver, which she says resulted in water being a recurring element of her art. She trained in art at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and studied painting, printmaking, drawing, mythology, and literature in service of her Bachelor of Art degree in Colloquium Studies (an integrative multidisciplinary program) with a major in Art from the University of Lethbridge (1975). Among her varied output she produces photography, watercolours, and powerfully mythic pen-and-ink drawings such as “Entrance to Moria,” “The Mirror of Galadriel,” and “Bag End,” all inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien characters and locations.
Blair-Matisz has mounted solo exhibitions in Lethbridge, including at the Lethbridge Public Library, the Art Studio Fine Art Supplies store, and at the former Bowman Art Centre. She has participated in group shows such as Southern Exposure, a touring group show organized by Alberta Culture (1980), and the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery’s (now the Esplanade) 10th Anniversary Show (1988). The public collections of the City of Lethbridge and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts include works by Blair-Matisz. She has completed commissions for Macmillan Press, the City of Lethbridge, the Alberta Composers Association, and the Lethbridge Symphony Association.
She lives and works in Medicine Hat.
