Emerging artist, Liz Pepper (creator of Colour of October) is based in south-east Queensland. As a young adult living with disability, Liz’s personal battles inspire creations centred around the human experience. While known for painting pets and portraits, Liz dabbles with various subjects and mediums from the whole spectrum. Once known for her dedication to realism, Liz has recently been exploring the wonders of colour manipulation and deliberate and intentional mark making.
Sharing her art through Colour of October on various social media platforms, Liz has generated millions of online impressions from all over the world.
Exhibiting work in galleries such as Brunswick St Gallery, Red Ink Rodeo and Art from the Margins, Liz has also been a finalist in prizes such as the Unearthed Art prize in both 2020 and 2021.
Liz has been involved with charities and campaigns including Anglicare's Arts and Minds, 8 hour art challenge and has donated art for auction at The Board meeting Surf charity's leagues of legends long lunch, raising funds for disabled kids on the Coast.
She has collaborated with local artists such as 'Ocean Art Naomi' and international brands such as 'Chaos and Kindness' and continues to craft personalised pieces for customers both locally and internationally, including 2022 Australian of the Year and Paralympian Dylan Alcott.
Put simply...
I'm an emerging artist in my twenties, living with disability.
For over a decade now, Colour of October has given me a unique way to express myself and given me incentive to keep doing what I'm passionate about. It's spurred me on- it's given me purpose.
I hope as I pave my own way forward with a paintbrush, it in some way helps someone else, even if it's just by reminding someone they are not alone.
What is the colour of October?
The colour of October is not a flat, block colour, nor a colour you can squeeze straight from a tube. It is as a complex mixture of many different colours- a one of a kind tint.
You see, I’ve come to think of Colour of October as an analogy for the various components of my life that intertwine to form the core of who I am.
If every individual experience I’ve had in my life was a colour on a giant paint palette, and these colours were mixed and blended together, that would be the colour of October.
Dark blues represent the hard, hopeless moments, and electric pinks represent days brimming with nothing but excitement…
My journey (which began on the 1st of October over twenty years ago) has been filled with so many experiences from all over the spectrum that have coloured me into the person I am today. I’ve been sharing the various stages of the work in progress that is myself (and my art) through Colour of October on various platforms for over a decade now.
On the days where my paint palette is looking rather black and bleak, my paintbrushes and pencils are always somewhere there to help me draw out the colour again.