Elizabeth Ockwell has spent thirty years teaching figure drawing and anatomy at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute.
For her own muse, however, Elizabeth has gravitated toward the built environment. The human figure rarely appears in her watercolors and etchings of Paris, Rome, Venice and Vienna but there is always a palpable human presence. Having taught figure drawing as an expression of character through the subject’s body language, Ockwell finds a city to have an identifiable character just as distinctly unique. She walks through famous rooms and town squares until her senses allow her to go no further for the perfect view. Her inner voice then tells her: “This is the place where energy is focussed, with a sense of historical focus. Where things have occurred and there is a sense of possibility and emotional resonance.”