Set Painting

Coastal Continuum, Elsie Sims Artist Elsie Sims looks to nature's cycle when creating her expressive woodcut designs. Finding inspiration from southern California's natural landscape, Sims' process draws on her own encounters with nature's transformations. Among her observations are trees clinging to eroding bluffs and the fading blooms of agave stalks, scattering seeds - allowing new life to sprout alongside the degeneration. Sims uses her technique to enhance the contrasting situations of death and rebirth often communicated in her landscapes. "Although I love drawing and painting, the powerful lines and bold gestural strokes of the woodcut process is a more satisfying representation of my mind's eye of nature," says Sims. Her latest series of large-scale woodcuts portray the push and pull of nature's course with attention to the vivid color and texture of California's coast.