By Helen Musa

East Hotel in Kingston is showing a series of striking works by former Canberra visual artist and educator Lee Crisp.

The exhibition, which opened on Thursday, continues a long association with the hotel, which began when a portrait of Canberra author Marion Halligan was displayed there through the Muse bookshop. The hotel has since become a regular base for the artist and her family.

Crisp works from a studio at Ballalaba, in a converted woolshed overlooking the Shoalhaven River valley.

The large watercolours in this exhibition were produced after lockdown and reflect a renewed engagement with movement and subject matter.

Abundance, using pinks, reds and gold leaf, centres on the form of the rose. Other large works, including Double Delight and Breath, continue this focus on natural and bodily forms.

Smaller works extend these ideas. Rose for Sharon Olds references the American poet Sharon Olds. Folding the Womb uses a single brush mark to suggest interior forms, while The Heart of the Dance refers to the body and circulation.

Blood Moon and Cusp address themes of creation and destruction. The final work, The Fire and the Rose, concludes the series with a focus on cycles of beginning and ending.

The works are on display at East Hotel and are available for purchase.