Self-portrait (detail), 2016, Oil on canvas.
Elizabeth Sellors is an artist who lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her work is informed by her experience in design, painting and ecology. She received a Bachelor of Interior Design (BID) degree from the University of Manitoba in 1972, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA Hons.) from the University of Manitoba in 2018. She is a certified Master Gardener and has passed the ISA examination in Arboriculture.
Until recently, she was a portrait and figurative artist, working in both realism and abstraction. She has a number of portraits in private collections in Winnipeg. She has shown her work through gallery exhibitions at the University of Manitoba. In 2019, she was commissioned by Manitoba Hydro to paint a portrait of revered Fox Lake Cree Nation Elder, Samson Dick.
Her recent work is a departure from portraiture. Having a strong interest in nature since childhood, she has focused her artwork on the subject of prairie landscapes. Growing up, her childhood playground was a great natural meadow of original tall grass prairie, where she explored for insects, indigenous plants and ground-nesting birds. She has maintained a strong interest in the prairie landscape and its flora and fauna. In 1980, she purchased a home in the Winnipeg neighbourhood of Riverview, where she began developing her property into her interpretation of an indigenous prairie meadow. Today, as a mature garden it has many examples of indigenous wildflowers. Her garden is a strong attraction for insects and birds -- wildlife that is in serious decline. She holds to the belief that our private properties are an opportunity for long-term conservation by growing indigenous species. As a Master Gardener and Arborist, she works to inform others of the need to care for and restore natures ecosystems, locally and globally. Her current art series looks at prairie landscapes from several points of view and experimental techniques. All proceeds from the sale of her Landscape Series will be donated to the work of Nature Conservancy Canada, promoting ecological integrity as the basis for stewardship of Manitoba’s parks and natural areas.