Liz Priestley Christmas Catalogue 2025 2nd December 2025 - 20th December 2025

In the Drift 2025, encaustic on board, 59cm x 59cm

In these encaustic works, landscape is approached not as a fixed scene but as a shifting experience—filtered through memory, sensation, and time. Using layers of pigmented wax fused with heat, surfaces are built to hold translucency and density in equal measure. Marks are often buried or partially revealed, with textures forming through both intentional gesture and the natural unpredictability of the medium. This responsive process allows each painting to evolve gradually.

Rather than depicting specific places, the works reflect on how landscape is recalled and felt—particularly within the Australian vernacular. The absence of defined forms or horizons invites a more intuitive reading, where viewers are encouraged to navigate each painting through mood, movement, and atmosphere. Influenced by the Romantic tradition but reframed through a contemporary lens, I endeavour to explore ideas of the sublime as moments of reflection.

These paintings sit between abstraction and evocation—leaning into the ambiguity that memory and landscape often share. They are less about representing the physical environment, and more about how we engage with and respond to it emotionally.