When we first posted elusive Queensland artist Lisa Adams, nobody had seen a painting from her in a year because she was quietly collecting new inspiration. She is now putting the finishing touches on her upcoming exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries, opening November 25th. Adams treats her paintings as a memoir, created chronologically, where making memories is part of the process. Her story is vested in her images.
By practice, Adams is a self taught artist who takes several months to complete a single piece, sometimes longer to develop an idea. Often, she will paint over an image two or three times to get it right. She considers the technical process of her work both enjoyable and an act of endurance and isolation, a steady climb, echoed in her imagery. Her female subjects are actually self portraits, scaling ladders into weather, excavating earth, and rolling in the mud with dark strangers. Behind her is beautifully rendered scenery with ominous skies overhead, offering a touch of discomfort. She rejects the ‘magic realist’ term used by critics to describe her work, preferring people see it for what it is- her feelings and experience of the world around her. True, her work shares elements of realism and surrealism, but with glorified emotional atmosphere. In anticipation of her next show, we take a look back at her work over the years.
Quebec native 
Swiss artist 