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

Classes at Nolan Art Fourth term 2013 begins Monday, 14 October. If you miss the first lesson, it doesn't matter: you can join the course whenever you like. Choose from - Oil Painting techniques All-comers Drawing and Painting Saturday Drawing more information

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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.

The British Soldier is on display in Simboli e Architipi (Symbols and Archetypes) at Associazione Dedalus Studi in Teramo, Italy; 5, 6, 7 October 2013 >>brochure (pdf file) The British Soldier   24cm x 16cm acrylic on paper

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.

Charming, disarming, and beautifully painted
is how one visitor described Return to the Island, a recent exhibition of paintings inspired by an Arts Tasmania cultural residency at the King Island Cultural Centre, Currie, King Island. The exhibition has closed, but you can still see the images

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