Brisbane-based Alex Louisa graduated with a degree in Journalism and Creative Writing, before the need to create firmly pulled her attention back to her art. Having worked as a graphic artist for eight years, she now focuses solely on her personal work.
Alex has been exhibiting within Australia since 2007, and internationally since 2012. Endlessly inspired by nature, she loves to pair highly detailed subjects next to unexpected backgrounds, such as splashy abstracts, experimental textures, crisp geometric patterns, or the sheer beauty of untouched woodgrain.
Often experimenting with mixed media, Alex mainly works with oils, acrylic, PanPastel and charcoal, currently with a shift towards larger works. She focuses on elements of the natural world that grab her attention - by discovering the intricacies of a leaf or flower, or by trying to capture an animal's individual personality, especially those of the avian kind.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I am a collector. I have a huge box of items that have been gathered through my wanderings - feathers, leaves, seedpods, lichen, shells, insect specimens and bones - and I look forward to drawing and painting them all. By sharing the natural elements that captivate me the most, I hope to encourage everyone to take a closer look at their surroundings - whether it be a bird on a branch above their head, or the dried leaves beneath their feet - and to find the intricate details that may have previously evaded their eyes. With my still life work I spend quite some time arranging these objects into a delicate, harmonious composition, especially in such a way that they cast interesting shadows, before the painting or drawing process even begins.
I have found that I like to take something very small, and represent it at a much larger scale so these details can really be exposed. By experimenting with a combination of soft-focus and highly detailed areas, I can draw the viewer's eye to the area that captivates me most, like the way there are slight colour shifts in the reflections where the light catches a cicada's wing, or the way the tiny feathers layer around the body of a bird no larger than your thumb.
And it has always been feathers that captivate me the most. My first word was "bird," and I have been enamoured with the creatures ever since.
PRIZES:
2021 - Finalist - Holmes Acquisitive Art Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art
2019 - Finalist - Holmes Acquisitive Art Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art
2017 - Finalist - Holmes Acquisitive Art Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art
2017 - Finalist - Lethbridge 10000 Small Works Prize
2016 - Finalist - Holmes Acquisitive Art Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art
2016 - Finalist - Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing
2016 - Finalist - Lethbridge 10000 Small Works Prize - Highly Commended
2016 - Finalist - Stanthorpe Art Festival
2015 - Finalist - Lethbridge 10000 Small Works Prize - Highly Commended
2014 - Finalist - Lethbridge 10000 Small Works Prize
2013 - Finalist - Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize
2012 - Finalist - Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing - Highly Commended
PUBLICATIONS:
2018 - The Moleskine Project Volume II - Spoke Art Gallery/Paragon Books
2015 - VIRTUOSOS of Paint - Out of Step Books
2015 - PRISMA Collective - Book 1
2015 - January Feature Artist - Trekell Art Supplies - www.trekell.com
2014 - Queensland Homes - Autumn - “Design Pilgrim - The Lust List: Design, Art Life + Style”
2012 - Semi-Permanent Book
2009 - Curvy 5