TOLAN, Liz

 

Artist Liz Tolan was born in Bradford and has lived in the district for most of her life. She completed an art foundation course at Bradford College, 1967/68, then continued to the Central School of Art & Design in London, where she studied on the Dip.AD programme for a year, 1968/9, before returning to Yorkshire.

In 2005 she returned to her art studies and began a part-time BA degree in Fine Art at Bradford College, graduating in 2011 with first class honours. Liz also received a Bradford College Art School prize for academic ability in 2012.

 

Northgate #1-2022. Oil on Canvas. Image courtesy of Liz Tolan

Girl#4-2018. Oil on Canvas. Image courtesy of Liz Tolan

Liz says of her work:

I am primarily a painter. For some years my work was concerned with the city (particularly Bradford) and themes of decay and regeneration. However, imaginary characters (and animals, and ice creams) would intrude into my paintings and at present my work is superficially more figurative.

Current paintings are initiated by family photos, but ones which have some oddness or disjunction to them and have been mediated in some way – either viewed fleetingly on a screen and drawn in passing, or reproduced or faded and distressed by time. My interest is in the nature of the photograph as well as the people captured and a sense of place, but, just as much, the activity of paint and the painted space.

 

Waiting for War-2024. Oil on Canvas. Image courtesy of Liz Tolan

Girl#1-2018. Oil on Canvas. Image courtesy of Liz Tolan

Liz has had work included  in a number of group exhibitions, including at the Bradford Open and Batley Open exhibitions, Bradford Playhouse, Cupola Art Gallery, Sheffield, and Saltaire Arts Trail;  and with solo exhibitions at Batley Library, the South Square Gallery, Thornton, and Trapezium Gallery, Bradford. She was also included as one of six ‘Hidden Artists’ in ‘Untitled’ no. 3, a publication linked to British Art Show 8 and produced by East Street Arts in Leeds; her work was subsequently included in an exhibition at the Patrick Studios, Leeds.

In recent years Liz’s work has utilised photographic images as subject matter.  These include, as well as family snaps, studio portraits and images from Google Streetview.  Another strand of her practice is a continuation of this work into abstraction, where previous figurative work is covered over leaving only hints of the original painting.
In this period she has had a solo exhibition at the Trapezium Gallery in Bradford and participated in group shows at South Square Gallery, Thornton; The Leeds Playhouse in the Leeds Summer Group Show; The Apothecary Gallery, Thornton; the Creative Arts Hub, Mirfield; and most recently again at the Trapezium Gallery, in an exhibition for International Women’s Day.

 

Studio Portrait 1880s-2023. Oil on Canvas. Image courtesy of Liz Tolan

May Day 1955-2023. Oil on Canvas. Image courtesy of Liz Tolan

Artist contact:  Liz Tolan Fine Art

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