Elizabeth Organ (1934-2009) abstract flower still life

A beautiful, powerful and dizzyingly good painting. 

 

This interior, table top still life is a perfect example of post war, British abstraction. Block shapes float in the background whilst a spray of vibrant and dynamic flowers burst over the top.....gorgeous.

 

Elizabeth Organ was a significant and interesting artist who drew influence from those around her such as her good friend Graham Sutherland but one that also carved her own path.

 

Elizabeth Organ (1934-2009)

Born in Birmingham, she studied at Leicester college of art, after which Elizabeth was offered a lectureship in art at Loughborough, where she met Bryan Organ, a fellow tutor. They married, and as Bryan’s career developed as a celebrity portrait painter with clients including Michael Tippett, Princess Margaret, Mary Quant and Elton John, Lizzie continued to teach and, equally talented, became a well respected painter in her own right. Among their closest friends were Graham and Katherine Sutherland, who both greatly admired Lizzie’s painting, and with whom Lizzie stayed for a while after her divorce from Bryan.

Around this time, she came into contact with the artist Eugene Fisk  (1938-2018) Eugene admired her work greatly and they later married. The couple then went on to set up the Kilvert Gallery on the Welsh borders. This was a centre and a hub for many British and international artists of the day.