last word
LANDSCAPE ARTIST
Elizabeth Wilson
GALL SIGLER | SPECIAL TO THE JE
M obility is everything for a
landscape artist, so when the
COVID-19 lockdown and
travel restrictions were issued, the scen-
ery that fed Elizabeth Wilson’s creativity
for decades suddenly became inacces-
sible. “I was stuck,” she said.

Beyond professional obstacles, the
pandemic was a challenging time for
Wilson on a personal level.

“I live alone, so the silence was deafen-
ing,” she said. Health concerns dissuaded
her from accepting numerous opportu-
nities, such as in-person interviews.

Yet instead of waiting idly for the
restrictions to loosen, Wilson took
advantage of the free time to paint.

For the first time in decades, she was
able to dedicate consecutive working
days to her projects.

She began to paint Long Island land-
scapes she let her memory conjure, all
from her home in Lower Merion. She
also turned the focus on her close sur-
roundings, painting the forest adjacent
to her house.

“For me, it was a luxury,” she said. “I
had unlimited time to work in my studio
… that was the most positive thing.”
Now, in her first solo museum exhi-
bition, “Elizabeth Wilson: Spirit of
Place,” Wilson reflects on the pan-
demic and the past two decades. The
30 landscape paintings portray scenery
from rural England and Italy and the
rocky beaches of Long Island, among
other works.

Wilson traces her passion for art to her
upbringing. “I grew up in a household where there
were a lot of beautiful objects,” she said.

She recalled finding a 1973-’74
Sotheby’s auction house sale catalog as a
child, where she saw paintings and other
items for auction that stimulated her
imagination. And as she rummaged through her
parents’ belongings during the pan-
demic, Elizabeth Wilson discovered that
30 her knack for art was inherited.

In a dusty portfolio and a brown box
from her father’s time as a gunner in
World War II, Wilson found the source
of her talent — in the form of her father’s
charcoal drawings of airplanes and her
mother’s work, some of which were col-
laborations. “I couldn’t believe how much good art
was there,” she said.

In 1978, Wilson matriculated at the
Corcoran School of Art in Washington,
D.C. After a year, she transferred to the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
where she graduated in 1984.

While Wilson began mainly in fig-
urative work, she later became known
SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
for her landscape paintings. Among the
many honors Wilson received are the
Sandra Karlin Award, the National Penn
Bank Award and the Catherine Gibbons
Granger Award for Painting.

Wilson’s focus on landscape work
congealed following a trip to Israel and
Egypt. Urged by her interest in John
Singer Sargent’s works on Middle Eastern
landscape, Wilson traveled to Israel, stay-
ing for a month in the kibbutz Netzer
Sereni. Wilson’s career includes numerous
international ventures. Some of her
most notable landscape works depict the
British Isles. In 1996, Wilson began trav-
eling to Great Britain regularly, exploring
landscapes to paint, and even considered
a permanent move.

“I really wanted to live there so badly
… Somehow, I feel genetically linked {to
Britain},” she said.

While Wilson says that Judaism does
not factor into her artwork, Wilson is
intrigued by the amount of great Jewish
artists. “I am aware that I am Jewish, I am
proud that I am Jewish,” she said.

Wilson feels a particular kinship with
Isaac Levitan, a 19th-century Russian
Jewish painter whose approach to paint-
ing and looking at light coincides with
Wilson’s. In conjunction with her career as an
artist, Wilson worked as an educator for
decades. In 1988, Wilson was asked to
teach a drawing course to architecture
students at Temple University.

“That was supposed to be for one
semester, and I ended up staying for
seven years,” she said.

Wilson later taught at the University
of the Arts and Philadelphia University.

Although Wilson thoroughly enjoyed
teaching, after about 25 years she decided
to take a step back from teaching full-time.

“Teaching is a lot of work, and I am
dedicated to my students … it is a lot of
time. I spent hours and hours,” she said.

“As rewarding as it is to teach, I want to
use this time to make art myself.”
Still, Wilson hosted a workshop at the
Art Students League of New York in 2015
and was invited in 2018 to teach a sum-
mer course at JSS in Civita, in Italy.

Despite her achievements, art was
not always Wilson’s priority. When her
mother was battling cancer and her
father faced heart surgery, Wilson placed
her career on the backburner for 15 years.

Wilson does not doubt that she made
the right decision.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,”
she said.

Wilson’s exhibition is on view at the
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in
Altoona from Sept. 2-Dec. 4. JE
Gall Sigler is an intern for the Jewish
Exponent. Courtesy of Elizabeth WIlson
MADE THE MOST OF PANDEMIC-CREATED FREE TIME