Liz Strick

Afghanistan-series by Liz Strick

Utran Kili Project / Fundraising Exposition

Why start a series of paintings on Afghanistan when you have never been there?  It seems it would be useful to explain.

Having lived abroad myself for about 24 years of my life, it was not actually such a difficult bridge for me to cross. Afghan culture has many aspects that I can relate to from the time I spent in other Muslim countries. And so it was that I embarked on this new series of paintings on Afghanistan.  My main concern was to choose subject matter that would highlight the country in a positive and warm light, as a stark contrast to the negative information we read about in the newspapers and see on television. As I advanced with my series of paintings I developed the idea of wanting to add a fund raising aspect to it by organizing a special exhibition to raise funds for a specific project in Afghanistan, so that my efforts will help to do some good for the education of some of the children of Afghanistan.

In 2006 my youngest son Alex Strick van Linschoten (www.alexstrick.com) moved to Afghanistan to work and live there permanently and independently (currently in Kandahar), as a researcher, freelance journalist and writer. He writes about the country’s day to day developments and history too, delving deep into the past and thinking about the future of Afghanistan. He is currently working on a PhD at the War Studies Department of King’s College London on the identity of the Taliban movement as expressed through their own writings and statements.  As a mother, I am naturally concerned about his welfare. Embarking on this painting journey of my paintings on Afghanistan, I too, in a way, am making my own journey through Afghanistan on canvas, be it from the safe corners of my studio. Working on this series has both been therapeutic as well as helpful to find peace in my heart about Alex’s commendable independent and dangerous mission in Afghanistan.

Through Alex I met a wonderfully strong Afghan woman and friend Orzala Ashraf Nemat. Orzala is a prominent civil society activist working to empower local communities to find peaceful solutions to conflict. In 2010, she founded the Youth & Women's Leadership Centre. Previously, as the founder and chair of a leading Afghan NGO, Humanitarian Assistance to the Women and Children of Afghanistan or HAWCA (www.hawca.org), Orzala devoted ten years to establishing and delivering training programs to Afghan women and children in refugee communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Often putting herself directly at risk under the Taliban regime, she launched underground literacy and health education programs for women and girls. She is increasingly involved in political advocacy and development at the national level and is on the board of directors of the Afghan Women’s Network and other human rights networks in Afghanistan.

The Project

Upon hearing about Orzala’s Utran Kili Project, for which she hopes to build a school, my mind was quickly made up when it came to making a choice of a good project to help raise additional funds for with my Afghanistan series.

In March 2010, as a result of two Young Global Leaders Christian Wenk (Switzerland) and Orzala Ashraf Nemat (Afghanistan) an initiative was taken to build a school for 400 girls and boys in a far and remote part of Afghanistan’s eastern province Nangarhar. According to the plan agreed among both, Christian has organized fund-raising programs while Orzala managed the process of speaking to local people, getting their agreements and managing the construction of the school. The school construction is 90% completed at this stage, some of the heavy raining during the year and also the breaking of mountain have delayed the completion slightly. However, according to the plan, the school will be ready to be inaugurated on March 22nd, 2011, when the Afghan academic year begins. The funds received so far from Christian amount to €40,000.00. This is the cost for the completion of the school’s construction. The initiative will continue to be sponsored for school costs for the first year, while by the second year, it will be formally handed over to the provincial department of the Ministry of Education for further continuation.

For more details (including site photos) see the URL link to ‘Utran Kili Project’ above.

The Paintings

Like I said before, 50% of all Afghanistan-series-paintings sold, will be donated to the Utran Kili Project.  There are 30 paintings in total. On top of that I shall donate the net income of the sales of the Afghanistan series-postcards, plus all donations made in support of the project.

I am grateful that I have learnt a lot about Afghanistan through the eyes of Alex and Orzala
and I shall always continue to follow developments in the country.

My Afghanistan-series can be found on my website www.lizstrick.com under the heading
Paintings and next select "Afghan period.!

Liz Strick  | The Hague,  February 2011

Notes on the Lebanon Series.

After the recent war in Lebanon I revisited the country.  The joyful birth of my second grandchild, Yasmin, is what brought me back to Beirut, but  during my stay I  was also able to visit the South of the country as far as the Litani River.  These four weeks had a tremendous impact on me and my art, and it was especially apparent upon my return when I started to revisit my experiences.  I was able to learn a lot about the Lebanese people and their culture. Their hospitality and strong personalities have made a long-lasting impression on me.  Witnessing some of the recent tremendous damages of war, the pain this has caused and the ongoing political instabilities have all added to my desire to try and put some of my feelings onto canvas.  That is how the Lebanon series started.  I’d like to see it as a small tribute to a nation and country that has lived through so many difficult and painful years and yet they have always come through with their heads held high.

Recently a friend donated some old used canvasses to me.  Would I like to over paint them, reuse them and turn them into new works of art?   The thought proved an interesting experience and certainly a big challenge as it would involve incorporating old layers of paint into my own new compositions. An experience not totally alien to me, as I usually like to begin with a blank canvas by adding some random colours to get me going.  It certainly proved to be even more of a total liberation as some of the underlying colours clearly set me off into a new colour scheme.  Warm and strong like the Lebanese people.

One downside to this method of overpainting is that it sometimes shows up slight imperfections because of the already-existing, sometimes thick, layers of paint on the canvas.  At the same time they give life to the work.

Liz Strick | March 2007

I live for painting, my paintings are my life !

My paintings voice my innermost feelings towards everything/everyone I encounter in my life. My eyes are the mirror of my soul. It is not surprising then that most of my work is rooted in my subconscious mind, the theatre of my soul. I approach reality with my intuition, in which I have total confidence.
Dreams, fantasies and illusions play an important part.
Through my work I communicate the stages of my life,  their meaning, and the relationships between me and the world.
Many of my paintings, even the landscape and still-life, express my emotions and moods.


Painters that inspire me especially are:  Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Odilon Redon, Wassily Kandinsky, Claude Monet.


Liz Strick | Zoetermeer, January 2003

Life’s journey never ends