continuing the journey ...

There is a new journal entry on the website: 'the wild flower journey continues'

and if you scroll down to 26 December you will find an earlier entry showing the wild flowers when they are first extracted from the book:

thank you for reading!

Unearthing the past #'s 1 - 3

In the process of setting up louisesaxton.com I was drawn back to my early days at art school - Canberra School of Art in the early 1980's and RMIT in the early 1990s. I discovered in the archives of my studio a folio of small drawings and photographs of lost paintings.  Not worthy of a gallery within the main website, but worthy of documentation none the less, I have decided to post some of the images in three journal entries. 

The interesting thing for me to remember is that my engagement with the domestic, with a sense of home, goes back a long way.  It has transmogrified over the years but, it is there as a constant thread.  

The first journal entry shows drawings in pencil and charcoal from a group house in Canberra and an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts, in the early 1980's.  The second shows drawings in oil stick and pastel from the early 1990's and the third journal shows charcoal drawings and paintings from the mid-late 1980's.

Please head to the website for full viewing of the journal entries and photos:

http://www.louisesaxton.com/journal/2014/1/16/unearthing-the-past

Heart Garden - ready for framing

'Heart Garden' 2013 is ready for framing!  The human heart motif has become a garden, filled with the exquisite hand-work of many anonymous makers and also, some belonging to family members of friends and acquaintances - I thank them all for their contributions! And here it is in the studio….

below a detail...

the negative form which is left after the 

backing motif has been extracted

 being pinned to the backing board

being pinned to the final mount-board for framing

and below the final work photographed by Gavin Hansford

Inspired firstly by my time at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2012 (where there is a heart garden in the form of the romantic symbol) and by my time at the Palliative Care hospice in Kew, 'Heart Garden' was made during my artist-in-residence at the hospice in 2013.

It will find a permanent home in the Cardiac Centre at St Vincent's Hospital in Fitzroy - also known as the Heart Centre. I will keep you posted on the installation of the work once it's framed and hopefully some of you will be able to go in and see the work in-situ.

Sanctuary Prints on louisesaxton.com

The final touches have been made to the website with the inclusion of an online shop, selling limited edition Giclée (pigment) prints selected from my Sanctuary collection. My web designer and I had fun 'setting up shop' yesterday.  

The prints are made from a high resolution photograph of the original reclaimed textile work, and printed on archival paper from a limited edition of 100 per image. Each print is signed and numbered on the back and comes with an information sheet about the original artwork.

See website for full details:

http//:www.louisesaxton.com/shop

"Textiles and other fragile species"...

A great start to the new year for me with an article and photo in The Age newspaper today.  Its not online as I write, so only have this photo from my phone to share with you at the moment. I hope to have a pdf up on my new website soon. Article is by Louise Bellamy and photo by Michael Clayton-Jones. Louise first saw my work at Heide MoMA in 2012 and has wanted to do an article since then, so thanks to Louise for her continued interest in my work and thanks to Michael for a terrific photo.

Please also see the post on my website - http://www.louisesaxton.com/journal/

Happy New Year and best wishes for the year ahead!

launch of louisesaxton.com

Dear followers

I'm very excited to announce that my new website is officially launched - you can find more about my art practice at louisesaxton.com

On the website is a page called "journal" which will replace this blog in respect to my art practice

There is also a link to me on Facebook - Louise Saxton Artist

thank you all so much for following this blog and I do hope you will follow me there as you have done here….

New website coming soon!

Dear blog friends,
In the new year of 2014 I will be launching a new website - louisesaxton.com - and am feeling quite excited.  This blog will appear on the website as a page called "journal" and while it will have a different layout, I do hope you will continue to browse every now and then to see what I've been up to. I will keep this Lou Saxton Artspace blog for more personal projects - such as the one I'm posting below of my current holiday by the beach.  I'm enjoying a few glorious, lazy days away from Melbourne, before the Christmas mayhem hits.  

Thank you so much for following my posts throughout 2013 and I wish you a wonderful holiday season - peaceful, restful and filled with happiness.

full moon rising behind Anderson's Inlet

Magnolia grandiflora

Grevillea speciosa - very Christmassy!

 a very special moment when this enormous Echidna 

wandered past on our first afternoon here!

paper cutting for my next art work

and last but not least, holiday inspiration…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Louise