These paintings were created by photographing manikins from the outside window of a high end fashion boutique. I was interested in the reflection of the world outside, creating a different perspective, patterns and reality. However, these paintings have never been an exploration or response to fashion or popular culture but instead a deep reflection of individual experience and the faceless self. Where the individual stands frozen and immobilized in reflection and patterns.

The colours and tones are muted and gentle but the image is unsettling. The choice of paint application and the use of traditional oil painting techniques is highly considered and constructed to create the uncanny stillness and calm.

As a painter I always decide which paint applications is best to resonate with the subject matter. The decisions to use dry, transparent and reflective painting techniques was integral.

I started this series before COVID and completed it during COVID. These paintings feel rather fitting in regards to how humanity has had to adapt to the facelessness of people during the last few years.

- Liza Visagie 2023

“Painting is a visual experience concerned with clarifying thought and to awaken in us the simplicity and unity of an impression. I apply traditional oil painting techniques along with investigative and innovative approaches within a modern and contemporary context. The structural and optical challenges of oil painting is at the forefront of my subject matter which ranges from site specific landscapes to narrative based still life. My interest is in documenting the ever changing natural environment by working directly in nature and from my experience of studying various landscapes and cities around the globe.” – Liza Visagie

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. Visagie’s 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.

Visagie has exhibited in various group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally; her works being collected across Canada, the United States, South Africa, Amsterdam, and Berlin.

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