Elizabeth A. Evans | AFCA | Gibsons, British Columbia
Over six decades distilling the luminous quiet of Canada's coasts — an AFCA-designated painter whose work resides in private and institutional collections worldwide.
Featured Collection
Three landmark works capturing the hushed poetry of Canada's coastal communities — still water, coloured clapboard, and the memory of a simpler life at sea. Each piece is acrylic on canvas, 2024.
Acrylic on canvas · 24 × 30 in
A summer afternoon stretches into eternity on this fog-softened Nova Scotia inlet. Fishing stages and their perfect reflections merge into one, coaxing the eye to linger between the real and the mirrored — a meditation on stillness that only deep familiarity with the coast can produce.
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Acrylic on canvas · 22 × 30 in
Under a full moon's cold radiance, a snow-covered fishing community glows with the warmth of Christmas lights and yellowed windows. Evans' palette transforms a harsh Maritime winter into something almost celestial — joyful and tender, achingly familiar to anyone who has spent a December night on Canada's east coast.
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Acrylic on canvas · 24 × 30 in
Snow blankets the wharves and dories of a quiet harbour. A lone lighthouse watches over the scene in the middle distance, its reflection trembling in pale blue water. Evans renders stillness as a presence — the whole canvas breathes with anticipation of spring, of boats relaunched, of the season's return.
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The Artist
Born in Montréal in 1944, Elizabeth Evans began her formal training at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts in 1962, where she studied painting, drawing, sculpture, etching, and design under Arthur Lismer — a founding member of the legendary Group of Seven. That lineage of rigorous observation and passionate engagement with the Canadian landscape runs through every work she produces.
She began exhibiting professionally in 1964. After decades in Ottawa and North Vancouver, she settled on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast in 2009, where the light and water continue to feed her work. In 2000 she developed Brickilism™ — a signature technique in which meticulously placed "bricks" of colour accumulate into luminous, representational scenes that invite the eye to pause, to unpack, and to discover hidden layers within the image.
Her paintings have been licensed for UNICEF and Save the Children greeting cards and are held in museum, organisational, and private collections around the world. She is an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (AFCA), the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA), and Artists for Conservation.
"My mission is to sensitize viewers to the fragile beauty of the natural world — to create a moment of stillness in which something essential is felt, even if it cannot be named." — E.A. Evans
Signature Style
Developed by Evans in 2000, Brickilism™ is a representational painting technique in which bold, brick-like strokes of acrylic are built up layer by layer across the canvas. Each individual "brick" of colour is decisive and whole — yet only at a distance does the full image resolve into the serene landscapes and seascapes for which Evans is celebrated.
The technique rewards close and distant viewing equally: move near the canvas and the image dissolves into an abstract architecture of colour; step back and a quiet harbour, a snow-covered hillside, or a still lake materialises with startling clarity. Evans often embeds subtle "shadow" sub-images — secondary scenes that reveal themselves only to the patient eye.
This interplay between structure and revelation is at the heart of Evans' lifelong conversation with the Canadian landscape — a dialogue shaped by Arthur Lismer's insistence on authentic observation and Evans' own six decades of looking.
2022 Nature Trust of BC — Artist of the Year
Selected from 164 submissions by 96 BC-based artists, The Intruder earned Evans the 2022 Nature Trust of British Columbia Artist of the Year Award — chosen after a long period of deliberation by the judges.
Painted in her signature Brickilism™ technique, the work depicts geese moving through a luminous BC wetland at sunrise — water, islands, and morning light assembled from hundreds of meticulous brick-like strokes of colour. The title captures that rare, humbling sensation of stepping into wilderness and realising you are the outsider.
The award was presented through a partnership between the Nature Trust of BC and the Federation of Canadian Artists, in celebration of nature and the artists who bear witness to it.
Read the Nature Trust Announcement →Honours & Affiliations
2022
Awarded by the Nature Trust of British Columbia in recognition of Evans' lifelong commitment to painting the natural world and raising awareness for habitat conservation.
2023
Elected Associate of the Federation of Canadian Artists — a distinction awarded to a select percentage of members who meet the FCA's rigorous jurying and exhibition standards.
International
Evans' paintings have been selected and licensed for UNICEF and Save the Children fundraising greeting cards, bringing her imagery to audiences across the globe.
Worldwide
Works held in museum, organisational, and private collections across Canada, the United States, and internationally — a testament to over 60 years of professional practice and critical recognition.
1962–1964
Formally trained at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts under Arthur Lismer — a founding member of Canada's Group of Seven — Evans carries a direct lineage from the tradition that defined modern Canadian art.
Broadcast
Featured on the television program Artist in the House, and profiled by Coast Culture, Coast Reporter, ArtsyShark, and the Society of Canadian Artists — one of Canada's most recognised working painters.
Acquisition & Gallery Enquiries
Whether you are a collector seeking works for acquisition, a gallerist exploring representation, or a curator interested in including Evans' paintings in an upcoming exhibition, we welcome your enquiry.
Works are also exhibited at:
One Flower One Leaf Gallery, Gibsons, BC
Federation Gallery, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC