“Painting for me is as necessary as breathing; as much an instinct as a delight. Images come from lembrança,* or memories of daily experiences from nature, poetry, music, culture and life.
Contemplation, imagination and time may alter the memory of the experience. As I paint, I attempt to capture the essence and the ephemeral characteristics of the remembered sensation. The process of painting in layers gives me the opportunity to alter, to deepen or to extend the image as it shifts in my mind.
I want to experience the lembrança of color, light and space of the experience.”
*Lembrança in Portuguese means memory of remembrance.
Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern is a painter, printmaker, and art instructor. She has received many grants and awards, including the Massachusetts Artist Foundation Grant in painting, and a Kinnicutt Travel Grant. In 2010, invited by the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal to be a Visiting Artist, she traveled to the country and lectured at the University of Coimbra and the University of Porto. In 2006 she was invited to participate in the American Artists Abroad Program, traveling to Angola, where she taught a workshop at the Rangel Art School, met with many Angolan artists in a cultural exchange of ideas and methods, as well as having an exhibition of her paintings. Both programs were in association with related Art in Embassies exhibitions.
Ahern has taught at the DeCordova Museum School, Worcester Art Museum, and Lesley University and has offered workshops in New Mexico and Greece. She exhibits her paintings in several galleries and has work placed in many corporate and private collections. A graduate of Boston University, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, she also studied in a Master Class with Helen Frankenthaler in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Website
http://www.dacostaahern.com/
