Blue Hare

Artist Profile

Elizabeth Ockford lives and works in Sussex. In 2009 she completed a Masters in Fine Art Printmaking at Camberwell School of Art, in London.

Working out of her studio in rural Sussex, which is equipped with her own printing press, she explores notions of nostalgia and memory, and emotional responses to places and animals. Believing that animals enter our lives through fables and myths, in ways that cross time and cultures, she is interested in depicting those animals that tell us a story.

Although she creates pieces about a variety of subjects, increasingly this has led to Elizabeth making pieces about the Horse. She is fascinated by its place in history and culture around the world, and by the complexity of messages it conveys. The Chinese Tang horse has influenced her, their strong beautiful necks and stylised silhouettes are a constant feature in her work, which typically is full of bold gestural marks and vibrant colours. When working directly from a horse to commission, it is the character of the horse itself that comes out- and this leads to varying degrees of abstraction dependent on her response and interaction with the animal.

Her informed and intuitive take on developments in the contemporary Art and Design markets, allows her to engage with a diverse range of applications and broad subject matter as well as the Horse.
She often works with images that relate closely to her childhood memories, and which demonstrate her love of colour and mark making.

She exhibits regularly in London and the South East, and her work is held in private collections around the world.