Going W I L D at Gould Galleries

My second solo show with Gould Galleries is now up and running.
The show is called W I L D and in this body of work, created over the past two and half years, I really have gone wild - in material, form and content.  The show follows my first exhibition with Gould Galleries, SANCTUARY TOO, which was held in May-June 2013. This body of work continues my passion for collecting and reclaiming discarded needlework and also introduces other materials, such as paper, in the form of reclaimed book illustrations and a 'porcelain garden' of discarded ceramic flowers and birds, collected over the past year.  Some works also include elements commissioned from a glass-blower and an expert cushion maker.  My first large 3-dimensional work, "Let the Jungle In" which won the Yering Sculpture Award in 2013 will also have another outing. Unlike SANCTUARY TOO which was a cohesive exhibition in terms of imagery, materials and technique, WILD is more eclectic and in regard to some of the three-dimensional works and installations more experimental - in other words, its wilder!  As with SANCTUARY TOO, this exhibition continues my interest in celebrating and reconstructing discarded domestic materials and drawing a link between the domestic archives of home and the public archives of the museum and library.  Several works reinterpret historical paintings of flora and the human figure immersed in flora. I do hope you will be able to see the show during its run at Gould Galleries 270 Toorak Road, South Yarra 9872 8482 - until 5pm on Saturday 5th December 2015.

For images of some of works in the exhibition, please visit the WILD Gallery on my website.

NEW FILM For now I'd love it if you spent four minutes viewing a short film of my studio practice, made by a talented young Melbourne filmmaker  Lily Youngsmith, titled Louise Saxton Assemblage.  You can view it on Youtube or on my website "About" page. 

Installation Shots of a portion of WILD at Gould Galleries by Gavin Hansford

  

Image below: Detail of "Desnuda y Flores 2015 after Diego Rivera 1944" Reclaimed needlework, lace and beading pins, silk, nylon tulle on museum board. 142 x 122 cm. Photo by Gavin Hansford. © Louise Saxton

Progress on Flora meretrix...

Petto di Flora - Flora's breast (in Italian) 
Making progress on my reinterpretation of a portion of Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Flora meretrix, painted in c.1590 - it's slow but we are getting there…(I say "we" because I feel like the original embroiderers and the original artist are collaborating, silently, with me!)
Today I took her tulle backing down from the wall and have begun extracting the different sections and pinning them to the museum mount board.  
I'm using vintage velvet for the background in the top left corner - a deep midnight blue which will be overlaid with antique black lace; Mason's regalia brass thread embroidery for the hair (which, in the original painting, Arcimboldo references Octopus' tentacles!) and; everything else is reclaimed embroidery and lace. The collar of her garment will be made of white flowers that are set in relief from the rest of the work.
http//:www.louisesaxton.com/journal

Flora on the table with colour coded boxes of embroidery and lace

and the inspiration - Flora meretrix by Giuseppe Arcimboldo c.1590

The bottom right hand corner is cut away from the tulle backing

ready to be stabilised on a layer of silk organza, before pinning

to the archival mount board

Flora's breast with midnight blue velvet, brass thread Mason's regalia

for hair and reclaimed embroidery for the garment and embroidery and

lace for the body. The collar of her garment is yet to be pinned with 

white flowers (below), raised up in relief above the rest of the work.

The addition of blue velvet background and some white flowers
which will eventually fill the empty spaces and create the floral
Ermine that Arcimboldo was imitating

And for a remind of the original incredibly exquisite painting by Arcimboldo

which I could never hope to replicate, I simply hope to reference him

and pay homage through the exquisite art of needlework

Frida is finished...

"Frida" is complete and captured here by my wonderful photographer of 14 years, Gavin Hansford.
I refer to the work affectionately as Frida, but it is actually titled "Desnuda y Flores (nude and flowers) 2015 after Diego Rivera 1944". Reclaimed needlework (Tehuantapec embroidery from Mexico, antique lace doilies from NYC, vintage cross stitch from Boston, pinned to nylon tulle and silk using lace and beading pins and mounted in relief on museum board H1360 x W880 cm)
Here are Gavin's photos of Frida and me pinning her to the mount board, and also a link to the journal article on my website:

Be not of Feint Heart

I have recently embarked on a new work in reclaimed needlework, which reinterprets the crazily beautiful, English Surrealist-inspired painting by Adrian Feint "Happy Landing" 1944 (collection Art Gallery of South Australia)
Please go to my website: louisesaxton.com for details on why I've chosen this particular painting and photos of my work-in-progress

Spring Inspiration in Winter

I am in love…. with this painting of the Roman Goddess of Spring, flowers and fertility, "Flora-Meretrix", by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593).  This is the more sensual version of his Flora paintings and I love the way he softened the flowers to create a sense of flesh (almost as if she were wearing a lacey body stocking) and in contrast, he gave the other flowers, which create her hair and garment, a sense of hyper-reality.  What a challenge it would be to reinterpret even a detail of this glorious painting, in reclaimed embroidery.

When I was in Paris in 2010 I walked through miles of galleries in the Louvre to see the Arcimboldo paintings, only to learn that they were all on loan to Madrid.  I was quite disappointed.  

This particular painting has always been held in private collections and has only been exhibited to the public once in four hundred years - in Vienna in 2014.  What I wouldn't have given to have seen her in the flesh!

(http://musea.today/2014/10/20/exhibition-giuseppe-arcimboldo-khm-vienna/)

Winter warmer

Greetings from the studio above the discount shop, on the High street in East Kew, Victoria, Australia!

I've been in this lovely space, with north facing windows which is wonderful in winter, for nine years now. The shop downstairs has changed hands recently and while I miss my previous "land-lady" the new owner is happy for a low-rent paying artist to scratch away in her 'bower' upstairs.  

Posting a few photos of the studio filled with the materials I use for my artwork and other objects I also collect in the local charity shops, which inspire and "embower" my creative space.

View to the fireplace and the "collection" 

of inspirational objects and materials

A window ledge holding a fraction of the 

"mad Haberdasher's" collection and Australiana 

View to one corner of the studio, with

experimental wall pieces and a growing

collection of porcelain flowers

Vintage needlepoint firescreen, with

vintage tea-towels found in Boston USA

and a bundle of my needlework finds,

the raw materials for my assemblages

A close up view of the window ledge

and various 'treasures' from bygone eras

Greetings old friends and fellow bloggers

It's been an age since I wrote here, probably because I spend more time on my website Journal, which is a diary type blog. So please feel free to wander over there for a look-see at all my recent goings on:
http://www.louisesaxton.com

I'm back here today to share some great photos taken by my dear friend and photographer of 15 years Gavin Hansford, who as well as being a great documenter of other artists work, is a fabulous landscape photographer in his own right www.gavinhansford.com.au

The most recent pieces shown below have just been completed for my show later in the year at Gould Galleries (now scheduled for November) www.gouldgalleries.com 

Vanitas #1 - The Bather 2015
Reclaimed needlework, brass beading pins on museum board
92 x 98 cm

Vanitas 1 & 2 are inspired by the paintings of Herman Henstenburgh (1667-1726). 
I named Vanitas #1 The Bather, as it reminds me of the floral caps my mother's generation wore to keep their hair and ears dry when bathing! It is filled with exquisite embroidered motifs including silk Eagles with a sunset from China, cross-stitched Hummingbirds, roses found in a NYC flea market, French knotted roses from France, Australian native flora and fauna and some exquisite Art Nouveau silk poppies.

Vanitas #2 - The Twitcher 2015
Reclaimed needlework, brass beading pins on museum board
92 x 98 cm

I named this work The Twitcher as it is filled with embroidered birds of all sorts, colours and sizes, from different parts of the globe - America, Australia, China, England, Palestine and Vietnam

Vanitas #3 - The Storyteller 2015
Reclaimed needlework, brass beading pins on museum board
98 x 92 cm

I named this Vanitas - The Storyteller as it is based on a fetal skull (yes creepy I know!) and is filled with embroidered motifs which in some way reference childhood and storytelling - the bluebirds of happiness, the Koalas of Blinky Bill, Mexican people and animals, a Beatrix Potter rabbit, a Pirate with his parrot, gun, lantern and treasure, some cute puppies and a Spanish Galleon!

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post!

                                     Louise 

Homenaje a México

This new work-in-progress is my homage to the residency I undertook in Mexico in August 2014. It takes its inspiration from Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and uses the exquisite and quite rare Tehuantapec hand embroidery from Oaxaca, Mexico, that I purchased during my residency in Jalisco. There is also a unique hand-embroidered silk Bird of Paradise stem with buds, which I commissioned from a local embroiderer named Lopita.

For full details of this work in progress please see: Louise Saxton website

Diego Rivera's painting "Desnudos con alcatreces" 1944 (nude with Calla Lilies)

A detail showing part of my reinterpretation - "Desnuda y flores 2015 after Diego Rivera 1944"

Reclaimed Tehuantapec and Jalisco embroidery, antique lace, vintage cross-stitch, 

Hungarian silk embroidery, pinned to nylon tulle. Full work approx. 120W x 150H cm

Vanitas oh Vanitas

In researching Dutch still lives I came across some wonderful Vanitas painted in the early 1700's by Herman Henstenburgh (1667-1726). He painted in watercolour on velum which gives the flowers surrounding the strangely smiling skull, a wonderful luminosity. (See photo below, provenance unknown). My reinterpretation of the Vanitas, in reclaimed needlework, is the first in a series of 'cornucopia' works planned for my next solo exhibition with Gould Galleries in 2015. On a recent trip to my mother's home in regional Victoria, I found some exquisite needlework including Chinese silk embroidered birds with tree and sunset and cross-stitched Hummingbirds with Honeysuckle. These are being incorporated, along with other pieces from my collection, into the floral arrangement adorning the skull. On my return to the studio I backed the fragile pieces with Vlisofix and silk to stabilise them for extraction. They are temporarily pinned directly to the wall of my studio while I work out their arrangement, which is reminding me of the floral bathing caps my mother's generation wore, to keep their hair dry whilst swimming, hense my working title, 'The Bather 2014 after Herman Henstenburgh c.1700'.

For photos of my work in process please go to my website http://www.louisesaxton.com/journal/

Magnolia fully blooms

'Magnolia georgiana 2014 - after Georg Ehret 1743' is finally in full bloom, just in time for the end of Spring and after work was delayed by my wonderful residency Mexico and time in NYC and Boston. In March I began reinterpreting the magnificent Magnolia grandiflora, first painted in 1743 by Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-70), which continues my well worn relief/assemblage technique, but uses a cropped image to fill the whole picture plane. I'm also using whole flower and other motifs to build the image, rather than always dissecting them into tiny fragments as I have done previously and vintage velvet to build the leaves. The cropped nature of the work is a reference to the wonderful Georgia O'Keefe. Photos below show the last stages of development.  I hope to have it photographed next week and framed before Christmas! This work forms part of my next solo exhibition, "Wild" to be held at Gould Galleries in September 2015.

Mounting the vintage velvet leaves on the bottom layer

of the backing mounts - the velvet had to be backed

with a layer of silk to stabilise the cut edges.  I've used

stainless steel lace pins to define the veins of the leaves.

The Magnolia's three-dimensional quality shows in this

birds-eye-view on my work table - it seems to float above

the lush bed of velvet leaves

The work appears to not be square, but it's just

the illusion created by it leaning against the wall.

Its very hard for me to capture the variations in the 

green velvets, but my photographer Gavin Hansford will. 

http://www.louisesaxton.com/journal/

Maravillosa México - part 1

360 Xochi Quetzal Artist Residency on the shores of the largest freshwater lake in Mexico, Lake Chapala, was my home for one month in August this year. A beautifully decorated and perfectly appointed little casita, perched on the third floor with views of the mountain range, the lake and the Red Cross clinic, was truly a home-away-from-home. This was made even more so, by the residency patron Deborah Kruger who is an established artist from North America working in fiber, digital and installation and her partner Christian. There were two other inspirational artists on residency at the same time - Gloria Clunie, playwright from Chicago and Yen Hua, porcelain/installation artist from Taiwan.  The purpose of the residency is "to support artists, writers and musicians who would benefit from having uninterrupted time to devote to their creativity. By providing free housing and a generous food allowance, we hope that our residents can make artistic progress without the stress and distractions of daily life."

My purpose for applying for a residency in Mexico was to experience a culture which still has a living tradition of embroidery, but finding this tradition in Chapala proved trickier than I anticipated.  A lot of the embroidery found locally is made solely for the tourist market - blouses, dresses, table runners, pillow covers etc - but I met some very generous people, both connected to the residency or in chance meetings, who were able to direct me to artisan pueblos and galleries. I was also very fortunate to meet an embroiderer who I commissioned to make several Mexican flower embroideries in silk.

The residency afforded me time to relax, explore, experiment and enjoy life "without the stress and distractions of daily life", although there were many wonderful distractions which took me out of the studio and into the streets of this wonderful, and very alive, pueblo!

Here are some photos of my time spent in Chapala and surrounds: 

My casita lounge room / studio

The view from my bedroom window - local casas and the mountain

Jesus on the Lake - a huge statue of Jesus, usually surrounded

by water, but sadly Lake Chapala is very receded at present.

A beautiful meal prepared by Yen Hua 

for the residents and associates

My favourite colours from childhood on the

garden wall of a neighbouring casa

Local flora

and a local fence the same colour!

experimenting with lung forms - I call them 'Lung Flowers'

reclaimed needlework, lace pins and nylon tulle

Lung flowers floating in the window space -

with a view across the downstairs roof tiles

and beyond to the Lake and Sierra Madre (Mother Mountain)

Day of the Dead paper cuts, bought locally,

and doily brought from home, ready for deconstructing

One of a series of Day of Dead Doileys….

The front wall of the casitas with a mural painted

by a previous resident, from Japan.

Home again

It's been months since I wrote a post here.  I've been in Mexico, New York and Boston and couldn't work out how to post using my iPad, which was very annoying, but gave me time for other things!

This is a very brief post before I dash off to the studio for the first time in two months, to say it's great to be back home, but it was fabulous being away!  I will post about the wonderful residency in Mexico SOON.

NEWS:  OPENING AT MOBILIA GALLERY, Cambridge BOSTON  10 October - 15 November

NOW SHOWING:  RED GALLERY 157 St Georges Road, Nth Fitzroy VIC, AUSTRALIA

24 September - 11 October

my work (centre) a homage to Lucy & John Audubon

 of the 'Birds of America' - installed along side Julie Bradley (left)

Snowy and Bubo go to Boston...

The Snowy owls I've spent 10 days on so far, took a recent hiatus while I was laid low with a winter lurgie, but they are back and almost finished, in terms of the painstaking pinning. They will soon be extracted from the surrounding tulle and backed with silk and then pinned to foam core before mounting and framing.

I'm thinking of calling this intimate pair, 'Snowy & Bubo - after Edward Lear c.1843' - Snowy as they are Snowy owls and Bubo as their latin name is Bubo scandiacus.

There are some very precious and unique materials used to re-create Edward Lear's watercolour, including; antique needlelace collar from Belgium, for the black and white owl, which I purchased at an Embroiderer's Guild market; a vintage lace doily for the body of the white owl which has been pinned to my studio wall for at least five years; Hungarian black and gold 1920's 'flapper' lace from Budapest, which I purchased on Etsy, as highlights on the black and white owl and for the rock on which it is perched; Hungarian silk embroidery is placed under the 'flapper' lace to give the rock form and under-colouring; Japanese gold couching for the eye and French Chantilly lace for the markings on the black and white owl; a raised floral lace for the top of the branch, which came from a vintage dress which a friend gave me; and a very unusual Irish (I think) long thread-work, cotton doily for the face of the white owl.

The owls will soon be migrating to Boston USA for exhibition with Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, later in the year. My plan is that they will travel with me in my suitcase to Mexico, NYC and finally to Boston where I will have them framed.

These are the owls at day 10 - just before cutting off the tulle and below is a link to my journal entry on the website.

louisesaxton.com/journal