Alex Louisa

Just in case you haven't found your way...

This is what I've been working on lately.

Lots of experiments with textured panels and painted faces, and an obsession with hexagons, over on my new blog...

--- NEW BLOG ---

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Please head to www.alexlouisa.com/blog to find my new blog. 

All previous posts and comments have also been moved.

(You'll notice I've destroyed all the images on this blog in the change-over,

so please head to my new one to take a peek!)

Thanks!

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- : - : - : Construction Site : - : - : -

I'm sure I'm trying to do too many things at once, but I'm going to try anyway! 

I'm changing blog hosts. I'd like to be able to have a better gallery attached to my blog to display my artwork, so I'm jumping ship. I need to refresh and re-organise things. If you visit in the next few days and find that everything's upside down or you get some crazy error message, hopefully it means that I've just hit the wrong button and all will be well soon. My technological know-how is pretty much just know-not, but still - [fingers crossed] - we'll see how things look in about a week! (My address will remain as www.alexlouisa.com, so if for some reason your RSS feed doesn't update anymore, please visit after Feb 14th to resubscribe!)

In the meantime, I finished making these little succulent displays today for my desk. They would look much nicer in some of those lovely hanging glass sphere terrariums, but this is my version anyway.  :)

Back soon!

x.

***EDIT 14/02/11: I've had all sorts of lovely computer/internet troubles so I'm only just starting on the new blog/website. I'm hoping it will be sorted by next Monday now! Thanks for you patience :)  

Bird Magnets

I couldn't resist turning my little wrens into some glass tile magnets:

The trio fits perfectly in one of those little metal slide tins for a gift:

And do you want to see a magnet/epoxy explosion?** Just lay your still-wet magnets closely in a line so the magnets can shoot together and make a massive mess. It should be quite obvious that this will happen.

** Lesson learned.

Prints and Plans

These are a couple of the new prints that will be available soon in my new online store that will be opening within a week! (I may have spoken too soon before, when I mentioned it would be opening last November, but there was too much going on then, and I wanted to be able to plan everything properly.)

There will be plenty of limited edition prints, and I'm finally allowing quite a few originals to be pried from my sentimental little hands... 

Fly away home

This collection of birds are flying away to a new home in WA. 

I'm very happy that they'll all be staying together, especially the set of three wrens (my favourite artworks to date!)

And, that is the perfect excuse to paint some more birds  ;)

REMINDER: Art for Heart Flood Appeal Auction

The second fundraising art auction is well under way and ends at 5pm Sydney time, tomorrow (Jan 27th). That's just over 24 hours from now.

Artists in Lot 2 include: Ali-J, Andy Wilson, Bec Winnel, Cory Child, Kat Macleod, Kate Banazi, Kelly Smith, Kelly Thompson, Lilly Piri, Megan Dell, Sarah McNeil and myself.

There's so much lovely artwork up for grabs, and all funds raised go directly to the Premier's Queensland Flood Appeal (which you can also donate directly to here). If there's an artwork that catches your eye, simply click on the image, where you'll be taken to a page where you can leave a comment with your bid. Postage within Australia is free, and International postage is capped only $8.

Hooray!

Collections

Just a snippet of some of the items I will be drawing/painting in the next days, weeks, months...

The only trouble is choosing where to start!

Art for Heart : Queensland Flood Appeal Art Auction

Australian artists Beth-Emily and Kelly Smith have done a brilliant job in a very short amount of time to organise the Art for Heart Art Auction. Over 20 artists have donated an assortment of original illustrations, prints, jewellery and more, which will be auctioned starting today at 10am Sydney time, with all proceeds raised going to Premier's Flood Relief Appeal.

More information and instructions can be found on the Art for Heart website. All items sold have free postage within Australia, and a flat rate of $8 (AUD) for International orders. I have included a set of three of my wren prints. The images are 7x7" in size, and are first in an edition of 50 at that size. 

Please spread the word!!

Hi, 2011.

This is exactly how my green studio buddy looked when he landed on my windowsill last night, so I thought he was the perfect way to welcome everyone back :)

And yes, it's already more than halfway though the first month of the new year, but my holiday break was a little later than usual so I'm still feeling pretty fresh.

I'm not huge on resolutions, but there's one I'll mention: more. art. this. year.

And, hopefully there will be many more visits from studio frog too.

Let's stretch our imaginations and pretend this looks like a tree, so I can say MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanks for visiting through 2010  :)   Here's to an awesome new year!!

With much, much, much more art-making - Hooray!

Gimiks Born X Alex Louisa

I meant to post this last week! I was going to say this month has been getting away from me, but I should probably just replace that with this whole year. (New year's productivity resolutions, anyone?)

So this was fun. (If not terrifying, for a little while... I had never worked on a painting collaboration before, so I think I had stage fright for a good two days before I could lay brush to canvas, which did not do wonders for my deadline...)

The super-crazy-talented Gimiks Born handed this canvas over to me with everything painted but the girl, and I had to finish it off with my character, for his recent Bitter Winds solo show. As you can see, my clock parts obsession continues...

Do check out the other pieces from the show here. There are a couple of other collaborations with Brisbane artists Shida and Nic Plowman, plus a charcoal triptych that you must check out because it's my absolute favourite piece from the show!

(And this is my favourite part of this painting. The panda is gnawing on the grandfather clock, but he is not supposed to! Bad Panda.)

Final Finders Keepers/On The Wall Artwork

This is the artwork that I had on display at the Finders Keepers markets over the weekend, at the On the Wall event, organised by Leeloo.

It's 11x14", acrylic on BFK Rives paper. I'd had this paper in storage for far too long, so I'm so happy that I finally used it for something! It's lovely to work with.

I've called the piece Learning to be Patient, because the finch looks like he's waiting for something, but his slightly ruffled feathers suggest that the 'patience' part is taking a little practise. These little guys are usually waking up at about the same time as I am, in the grevillias outside my bedroom window, and they don't seem to be very good at staying in one place for too long, unless they're soaking up the sun. The last time I drew one was March '09!

Ok, the next finished artwork I'll be posting is my collaboration with Gimiks Born. Soon!

 

Finders Keepers artwork preview

I have to admit that I do like those strangely-angled preview photos that artists take, so you end up with a very detailed look at one small piece, while all the rest is blurred. My favourite section in this artwork is the little white hexagon pattern in one corner, so I had to focus on that:

You can see the whole piece at the Leeloo On the Wall event at the Sydney Finders Keepers markets on the 3rd - 4th of December, and I will post a picture of the whole finished artwork after that!

Polymer Stamps

I still seem to be quite fascinated with the humble old hexagon. It all started when there was a huge paper wasp nest outside our loungeroom window, and I was eyeing off the perfect little hexagonal chambers the crafty little (bitey) critters had created. That was months and months ago now, but I still find myself wanting to include hexagons in my work.

So, to save myself some stencilling time, I made some stamps of a few different sizes this morning, so I can use them in the artwork that I'm working on this weekend. It's rainy and grey and windy - my favourite art weather!

:: ON THE WALL ::

I've been lucky enough to be included in the ON THE WALL event - a collaboration between Leeloo and the Finders Keepers, at the Sydney Spring/Summer markets.

 
Artworks from more than 30 artists will be on show. Hopefully it's a huge success and will be a new Leeloo/FK tradition, because both of these teams know how to put on a great event!

I'll be working on my artwork for the show this weekend, while watching the V8s racing at Sandown (which is where my partner Steve is away working right this minute). I shall call it multi-tasking!

 

Artwork Albums

It's pretty irritating when you get to an art blog, and you only come across a finished artwork once in every thirty-seven posts, and since there's nowhere to see the finished pieces all together, you're click-clicking all over the place.

So, to make it a little easier to see my finished pieces, I've added all my artworks to some albums which you can access on the left side-bar, and I'll be adding to them (with extra categories as well) as I go along. I'll be using these albums while I try to figure out the best way to display my portfolio on the blog, or whether I just need to set up a website for the purpose.

I'd like to think that my finished artwork posts to random/process posts ratio was better than 1 to 37, but that's probably a pretty accurate guess right now! I'm working on making that number a little nicer :)

Bitter Winds Preview

Here is a sneak peek at a portion of the painting I have been working on over the last couple of weeks, as it was on my easel before I delivered it (last minute!) to the gallery.

I was very happy to be able to work my clock fascination into the collaboration with Gimiks Born for his Bitter Winds solo exhibition. I'm going to need lots of practise painting clock parts, since I'm going to be including them in lots of future paintings! 

I'd never worked on a collab before so it was an awesome new experience. Half of me was really excited, while the other half was terrified. I'm pretty sure I had stage fright initially as it took me a good 24 hours to lay paintbrush to canvas, but it all turned out well!

I'll post a pic of the full piece when the show's over. For now if you want to see it, you'll have to head along to Jugglers Art Space before the 26th of this month!

: : : BITTER WINDS : : :

It's only three days until Gimiks Born's new solo show at Jugglers:

I highly recommend heading along if you're in Brisbane. And I highly recommend travelling to Brisbane just to see it. It's going to be amazing! He's a very talented lad :)

 

Studio Buddies

Two posts in one day! How very, very rare...

I'm painting away right now, but I couldn't resist sharing this pic:

Tonight my favourite green studio buddy has brought a friend! So sweet :)