Liza Visagie painting

Born in Johannesburg, Liza Visagie studied at the University of South Africa before immigrating to Vancouver where she worked in printmaking, which would introduce her to legendary Canadian artists such as Jack Shadbolt and Gordon Smith. This experience would inspire her, in turn, to attend Emily Carr University and dedicate herself to a full-time painting career. Interestingly, she credits her long-term studies with local Vancouver painter Paul Chizik, also featured in this sale, for both elevating her craft and persuading her to adopt a contemporary approach to traditional oil painting techniques.

Visagies works consist primarily of landscape painting completed en plein-air; developing her sketches based on the shapes, tones, and colours of her surroundings and then finishing them in her studio. Waters Edge is a study of a luminous and tranquil body of water juxtaposed with a verdant shore, dark reed and towering trees in the middle ground, underneath billowing clouds. Modelled with heavy impasto strokes which meticulously convey every detail, Visagie works upwards of an entire year on her larger works.