Liz Heber

Liz is a designer, silk painter and mixed media artist working from her studio in Beachmere. For twenty years she has specialised in work on silk – touring the world to capture images, inspiration and above all to study with renowned exponents in her field.
It all started with her being a very sickly child spending much of her early years in bed. There was no problem as long as she had a pencil and paper to allow her to draw. By three, Liz was making her own Christmas cards and by eight she was winning prizes in the Courier Mail Art Competitions.

During her school years Liz was very fortunate to study with both Caroline Barker and Betty Churcher who taught her art at Clayfield College. However a Science degree, working as a bacteriologist here and in the USA and then teaching chemistry and being a school administrator for 30 years interrupted her art work. In school vacation time however she was back at it, dabbling with screen printing, fabric printing, batik and pottery, running art shows and exhibitions.

Retiring in 1996 Liz has devoted her life to her art and promoting artists and fund raising through this medium. Artists usually have little money to give to charity but they are capable of generating funds and she set about setting up a group called ‘Liz and Friends’ in 2001 and this still exists – many of the members of the present group have belonged to it for years and helped in raising over $100,000 by their collective skills.

Highlights of her art career include:

The opportunity to study silk painting on many occasions in the USA with Susan Moyer (including a two month mentorship program)

Exhibiting in the Australian Craft Show Sydney 1996-2004

Represented by ‘Arts Australia’ in their international exhibition to Munich with her silk Jackets.

Solo exhibition at Queensland House, the Strand. London 1997.

Three solo exhibitions in Mendocino Art centre Northern California 2000, 2003 and 2011 of her silk and more recently mixed media work

Chief Organiser of the Zonta International Exhibition 2000 convention in Hawaii. (ninety six artists from thirty two countries.)

Work included in the National Silk Exhibition USA 2003

A two man exhibition of her jellyfish paintings on silk with the American glass artist Rick Sativa 2005

Multiple study trips here, the USA and the UK with many great international teachers, including John Marshall, Robert Burridge and June Venables.

Liz’s work since 2005 relates heavily to her love of travel – Visions collected from her journeys along the Rhine and Danube, of Prague, Venice, Burano, Salzburg, and Russia. Her latest body of work is inspired by her 2011 trip to Vienna where she fell in love with the quirky architecture of Hundertwasser. More recently she visited the work of Gaudi in Barcelona and her charming paintings perfectly capture the unique buildings of both men

To summarize, overall her work is varied to say the least, usually full of colour and with a slight sense of the unexpected.