Elizabeth Barsham (formerly painting as E.M. Christensen) is an award-winning artist working in Tasmania, Australia's island state.

Winter is when it all happens in Hobart. To coincide with Dark MoFo Nolan Art Gallery is presenting Personal History, an exhibition of incredible paintings by Tasmanian artist Elizabeth Barsham. Why Personal History? Because her art and her life are inextricably intertwined, and this selection of old and new works spans almost thirty years of the artist's career. Nolan Art Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart Friday 13th June to 23 July 2014. see the exhibition here

Strange Relations installation by Elizabeth Barsham at Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart. 1 - 31 March 2014 more information

Elizabeth's uniquely imaginative oil paintings are an emotional expression of her ancestral connection to the landscape and its people. Often based on old family photographs, they feature mysterious figures against a backdrop of rugged mountains, impenetrable forest and crumbling buildings in an unsettling but hauntingly beautiful mixture of nostalgia, gothic romanticism and humour.

A descendant of the first convict settlers, she has also written several books and articles about Tasmanian family history and was the first Tasmanian to publish a book about a convict ancestor (Thomas Burbury, Pioneer of Tasmania by E.M. Christensen and W. Sinclair, Victoria, 1979).

Barsham does not dwell on lurid details of the colonial penal system but admires the determination and fortitude shown by pioneering men and women who endured terrible hardships in creating the townships, farms and industries enjoyed today. She is passionate about the need to explore and record what traces remain of their lives, while preserving both the built environment and the remaining forests and primaeval wilderness.

A selection of Elizabeth Barsham's paintings can be seen at Nolan Art Gallery, 77 Salamanca Pl, Hobart