Lisbeth Firmin’s work explores the relationship between people and their urban environment. Her urban landscapes follow in the tradition of earlier American realists such as John Sloan and Edward Hopper, depicting today’s life in the streets while reflecting modern themes of isolation and disconnection. Over the last few years, she has been focusing more on the figure, painting the light on the figure in an urban environment. She uses the solitary figure in an urban setting in her paintings and prints almost exclusively now. These monotypes are all examples of this direction. The figures are all headed somewhere, no one knows where. And they are alone, but, perhaps not lonely.

During the endless lockdown of 2020, Firmin was doing a lot of driving around and one late summer day she ended up at Birch Creek, a small park that used to be a homestead near Fleischmanns. There is an old boarded up farmhouse there, abandoned and beautiful. It came to her that she could paint that and perhaps portray some bygone human history from the ruins. She did the first painting, Birch Creek, and quickly found many more old places that spoke to her in this way, places once loved and then for whatever reason, left to fall apart. This series of abandoned places marks a departure from her urban figurative theme, substituting houses for people and country for city. 

The artist wishes to acknowledge her friend, the poet Margot Farrington, whose insight and inspiration helped this new series to come to life.