Recent Katoomba TEDx speaker, artist Corinne Loxton, will open her Blaxland home gallery next month to showcase her most recent works from the Capertee Valley and the Blue Mountains.
Titled Realms and Ranges the works will be on display from Saturday December 2 and Sunday December 3, from 10am to 4pm daily.
Recently Ms Loxton spoke at Katoomba's TedX conference, sharing how she had intentionally reconnected with her creativity after a personal crisis that left her unable to paint.
"When I found myself, unable to paint or even be in my studio, I sought solace in nature and spent hours wandering or just sitting in the bush near my home. The solitude, and yet the feeling of being companioned, gave me deep consolation.
"As I walked each day, I experienced struggle and wonder, I witnessed beauty, decay and renewal and gradually I began to reconnect with my joy and my desire to paint. It was as though I was grounding into the earth, connecting with my spirituality and the fullness of my humanity, and that as I did that I began to reconnect with my creative flow.
"I stopped striving and pushing myself and softened into a space of self-compassion and trust. I gave myself permission to breathe, to slow down, and pay attention to happenings in myself and the world around me. Instead of rising before dawn, I began easing into my day. My goal-focused activity gave way to mindful and unconscious movement, to contemplative walking, yoga, swimming and dancing."
These practices together with working en plein air (outdoors), and alla prima (all at once) are now crucial elements of her art practice. Both methods of working demand complete attention - an essential ingredient for creative flow.
"Painting in the landscape is challenging, invigorating and exhausting. It requires absolute focus, endurance and a sense of humour. When kids coo-ee to me from lookouts or interested trail walkers stop to chat, when the sun blazes, the wind gusts and the shadows shift, I must flex and stretch, accommodating each new variable to stay in flow."
Last month the artist visited the Capertee Valley to paint en plein air. The new exhibition is of these landscape paintings and others created here in the Blue Mountains.
The works depict both majestic mountains and grand skies. The spontaneity and vitality of the marks, the richness of the colour and the intimate scale of the works all invite the viewer both, to enter into the landscape images and be imaginatively transported to the realms beyond.
The works are on show at 12 Jamison Street in Blaxland.
Refreshments with the artist, and live music by local musician Pamela Fisher, at 4 pm on Saturday. For catering purposes, RSVP on her website at www.corinneloxton.com.au
