Louise Saxton Embroiders Birds

Tags

Art, Australian art, Birds, Embroidery, Fine art, Gould Galleries, Haberdashery, Louise Saxton, Melbourne, Mixed media, Native Birds, Natural History, Textile Art

Flaming Flamingo 2011– after John James Audubon, 1838 by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins, nylon tulle
116 x 98cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

Flaming Flamingo 2011– after John James Audubon, 1838 (Detail) by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins, nylon tulle
116 x 98cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he’s carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he’s carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you’re drunk. (Jack Handy)

I can only imagine the hours and painstaking hours of effort that must go into the creation of just one of Louise Saxton’s beautiful works. Look carefully – you will see antique lace, tulle, glass beads and more in these fantastical needleworks. The minutiae of her pieces are what makes them, for me. And, of course, my love of all things ‘haberdashery*’! 

Where does she get her patience?

Queen Billie 2010 – after Sarah Stone, 1790 by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins, nylon tulle
127 x 95 cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

Queen Billie 2010 – after Sarah Stone, 1790 (Detail) by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins, nylon tulle
127 x 95 cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

I collect, I dissect, reinterpret, and reassemble. (Louise Saxton)

The images in this post are taken from the artist’s recent exhibition, ‘Sanctuary too’, held at Gould Galleries in Melbourne.

For this series, Louise was influenced by natural history artists from the 1600’s to modern-day. She has reinterpreted specific works by developing an outline of an original natural history painting before building up layers, textures and colours of collected materials, and pinning and repining, until she is happy with the result. Just fabulous.

Halcyone & Ceyx 2010 – after Lilian Medland, c.1930 by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins, nylon tulle
76 x 96cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

Halcyone & Ceyx 2010 – after Lilian Medland, c.1930 (Detail) by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins, nylon tulle
76 x 96cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

Major Tom 2010 – After John & Elizabeth Gould, c.1848 by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins and nylon tulle
103 x 49 cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

Major Tom 2010 – After John & Elizabeth Gould, c.1848 (Detail) by Louise Saxton
Reclaimed needlework, lace pins and nylon tulle
103 x 49 cm
(Image from Gould Galleries)

To learn more about Louise Saxton’s work, or other artists represented at Gould Galleries, check out the website or visit them at 270 Toorak Road, South Yarra, VIC 3141. I have added them to my list for next time I’m visiting Melbourne.

* My brother refers to my love of craft endeavours as ‘haberdashery classes’. I think he just likes the word haberdashery, but Louise Saxton takes ‘haberdashery’ to a whole new level.

This weekend I’m off to the Olsen Irwin Gallery…

Tags

Art exhibition, Artist, Australia, Fine art, Jackson Pollock, John Bell, Morton Feldman, Nicholas Harding, Sydney, Woollahra, Woollahra New South Wales

Estuary Figures (Swim-ring, Towel and Hat)
Image taken from Olsen Irwin Gallery © Nicholas Harding

I want to give my compliments to Australia. Ever since your government paid a few million dollars for a Jackson Pollack painting, I figure that it must be a marvellous country. (Morton Feldman)

Yes, it is a marvellous country but I’d rather have a ‘Nicholas Harding‘ than a ‘Jackson Pollock’ hanging in my living room any day. Truly. He is one Australian-based artist who, for me anyway, captures both the Australian landscape and culture in a wonderfully textured way. And, I’m not even an Australian!

Down here, he’s quite a well-known figure in the art world (which is another way of saying his works are outside of my budget by a considerable margin). He won Australia’s most famous portraiture prize – the Archibald – back in 2001 with his work of the actor and director, John Bell.

March is Art Month for us down here. To celebrate, the Olsen Irwin Gallery in the lovely, leafy suburb of Woollahra is holding a ‘Figures, Flora and Landscape’ exhibition of Nicholas Harding’s work. I think it looks pretty fab…

Estuary Figures (Ball and Bat)
Image taken from Olsen Irwin Gallery © Nicholas Harding

Estuary Figures (Swamp Oaks, Swim-ring and Dog)
Image taken from Olsen Irwin Gallery © Nicholas Harding

The exhibition runs until 10 March at The Olsen Irwin Gallery. The gallery can be found at 63 Jersey Road, Woollahra, Sydney, Australia. If you would like to see more of the exhibition, there is a full catalogue of works here.

Tracy Potts is One Exotic Bird…

Tags

Anita Traverso Gallery, Art, Australia, Fiber art, Fine art, Melbourne, Mixed media, Tracy Potts, Visual Arts

‘I am Your Exotic Bird’ by Tracy Potts
mixed media on canvas, 147 x 128cm
(Image from Anita Traverso Gallery)

How’s this for a great example of why I blog. The very talented Tracy Potts introduced herself via the blog last week. She’s currently having an exhibition at the Anita Traverso Gallery in Melbourne, and given she’s a regular reader of my strange wee collection of sometimes creative, sometimes dog-inspired, often times design-oriented, occasionally foodie posts here at TSL, she thought I may be interested. Boy, was I ever!

‘I Want to be Your Everything’ by Tracy Potts
mixed media on canvas, 94 x 64cm
(Image from Anita Traverso Gallery)

‘600,000,000 Million Moments of Your Life That Have Simply Disappeared’ by Tracy Potts
mixed media on canvas, 94 x 64cm
(Image from Anita Traverso Gallery)

‘Something Told Me it Was Over’ by Tracy Potts
mixed media on canvas, 94 x 64cm
(Image from Anita Traverso Gallery)

‘The Soft Wall’ by Tracy Potts
mixed media on canvas, 94 x 64cm
(Image from Anita Traverso Gallery)

Tracy graduated from the University of South Australia with a Fine Arts degree majoring in printmaking. Now based in Melbourne, her mixed media work is represented in private collections both in Australia and Europe. Regular readers will know I have a massive soft spot for great fibre art, and I think Tracy’s work looks just fantastic. I just wish I was going to be in Melbourne to see the exhibition in person.

If you’d like to read a little more about Tracy’s work, Dylan Rainforth from Art Guide has written about her influences. Otherwise, if you’re in Melbourne, you could head down to the Anita Traverso Gallery at 7 Albert Street, Richmond before the 24th November, and be sure to let me know how fab’ the show is…

Who Needs ‘the Secret’ When You Can Write Your Wish?

Tags

Art, Contemporary art, culture, Fine art, Modern art, Performance, Saatchi Gallery, Saatchi Online, Television, The Chasers, The Chasers War on Everything, The Secret, Visual Arts

Having a wee tootle through Saatchi Online* the other day and I came across Rainer Fest’s ‘Write the Wish’ work. I have to say, it kind of appeals. Using scrabble-like alphabet cut-outs (only prettier), you write a wish into the spaces provided by the stand-alone table. It is then available for the world to see, at least until you think of a better wish…

‘Write the Wish’ by Rainer Fest
(Image sourced from Saatchi Online)

‘Write the Wish’ (Detail) by Rainer Fest
(Image sourced from Saatchi Online)

It seems to me this is a much better way of putting your wish out into the universe than using the techniques espoused in the global phenomenon that was ‘The Secret’. For a start, there really is only enough room for one wish to be presented at a time, so it does mean you can’t be too greedy. And, then there’s the fact that the Chasers probably won’t do a 7 minute sketch on you with your ‘Write a Wish’ like they did when ‘The Secret’ first came out… (I had forgotten quite how well the Chasers capture that ‘finger-nails down a blackboard’ feeling)

Rainer Fest is based in the North-East of Germany. You can access his website here. His Write the Wish work is available through Saatchi Online for US$6,200.

*In 2006 the Saatchi Gallery in London, known the world over for discovering emerging talent, launched Saatchi Online as a way to give artists not represented by galleries a platform to show their work to a global audience. This simple idea attracted such a large and dedicated community of artists that the site was re-launched in 2010 with functionality that enabled artists to sell their original work as well as make their work available for print sales.

(I am off taking a wee sojourn to sunny Queensland over the next few days which means my response times to your comments may be a little slower than usual. I do love hearing from you, so please don’t stop! – It may just take me a little longer to get back to you. Cheers!)

Emily Barletta and Her Red Thread…

Tags

Artist, Colour, Crafts, creativity, culture, Design, Emily Barletta, Exhibition, Fiber art, Fine art, Maryland Institute College of Art, Photos, Stitch, style, Thread

Fresh after her recent exhibition at the group showing, ‘The Sum of the Parts’ at the Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, the very talented Emily Barletta has just added some new works to her portfolio.  I think they are gorgeous in their simplicity, especially when compared to some of her more complex (yet equally fab’) pieces.

Have a look some of the new stitched pieces and see what you think:

Untitled (big circle) by Emily Barletta (2011)
thread and paper

Untitled 2 by Emily Barletta (2011)
thread and paper

Untitled 10 by Emily Barletta (2011)
thread and paper

Apparently, Ms Barletta has loved needlework and crafts since her childhood in Utah.  After graduating from Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art with a bachelor’s degree in fibre arts, she embarked on a path utilising techniques she had previously used in her hobbies and applying them to fine art.

I love the way her work has an organic feel to it, and the way she interprets old home-style crafts into incredible and detailed modern works of fibre art.

I would love the ‘untitled 10′ piece for my wall.

Alternatively, a bowl of these would make me happy:

Untitled (rocks) by Emily Barletta (2010)
thread, felt, and rocks, mixed sizes

Go and check out some of her other work at EmilyBarletta.com.  It’s amazing!

(All images sourced from Emily Barletta’s website)