THE EVER-CHANGING NATURE of rural landscapes is the inspiration behind an exhibition of works by Deepwater artist Alexandra Simone, opening at The Makers Shed Glen Innes on Saturday April 6.

Simone is exhibiting a range of original landscapes, botanicals, and abstract works on paper and canvas, most executed after relocating to the region and experiencing its distinct changes of season.

“The New England region has awakened and renewed my visual sense,” she said. 

“I have rediscovered the textures, the incredible vastness and the harshness (at times) of the ever-changing landscape.

“I’m enthralled as the light changes and dances across the grass plains, the woodlands, the wetlands, the fields, and the paddocks.

“The natural world inspires me no end, though I am also very interested in rediscovering the stories that abandoned sheds, building and gardens have left behind … the use of layers, the consequence of a line, of a mark.”

The prolific textile designer and printmaker was born into a grazing family in Queensland’s Inglewood district and spent much of her early life in Latin America and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, with stints in Rhodesia, Jerusalem and New Zealand. 

Simone attended the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education in Toowoomba and received a grant to study traditional Batik in Jogjakarta, Indonesia.

“I have had some remarkable and extraordinary life encounters that have resonated with my artistic persona within the natural word, which never ceases to amaze and inspire me,” she said.

Translating textures 

Simone’s work is made up of layers of texture and colour, utilising collage and mono-printing, a type of printmaking that results in one-off originals that explore images, patterns and colours serially.

According to her, this technique stems from what she sees in the landscape.

“The environment is always in a flux, ever-changing and evolving as the hues, the shapes and textures take form,” she said. 

“I translate that language as I put it into my artwork.”

Simone is a member of Deepwater’s Art and Pottery Group, which meets every Thursday at the Goat Shed, a gallery on a working sheep property north of the township devoted to the creation and exhibition of the group’s ceramics and visual art, with regular workshops for locals and visitors. 

Alexandra Simone’s exhibition Textures & Seasons opens at 3pm on Saturday April 6 at The Makers Shed, Glen Innes. Register your free ticket. A range of works are available for sale online.