Plate 164

(161) Elizabeth Haigh – Do we need a reminder?

(1015) Inês Cannas – Inês Cannas – The mist of my dreams – page 295

About this Artwork
Price: $120 AUD


References ‘How Plants Live and Breathe from Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopaedia’ Vol 1 p 295.

Half a century on from Newnes explanatory diagram showing ‘How Plants Live and Breathe’.
I question ”Do we need a reminder?” Based on scientific evidence and the climatic conditions we currently experience -Why are there still debates towards the cause, effect and still denials of our warming planet? Is it not obvious that changing weather patterns are impacting our environment? To portray how our natural environment is under pressure I have deliberately used the same images and layout from Newnes Pictorial to indicate these changes in such a short period of time. To do this, I have stitched plastic and metal thread to indicate soil pollutants. Rain contaminants are shown by digital printing and collaging the periodic symbols of Sulfuric and Nitric acid (commonly known as Acid Rain). In addition, increased temperatures are indicated by smoke filled air and red skies to highlight the challenges plants now endure as they live and breathe

About Elizabeth

While walking can simply be an act of moving from one location to another, for Elizabeth Haigh it is a contemplative action that connects her to a powerful mentor and inspiration, nature! In an age where the natural environment is under growing pressure, her critical perception of nature’s micro world offers fertile ground that manifests with delicate, subtle but insightful art works.

Initially trained as a painter and sculptor, Elizabeth now includes textiles and other media to create unique works. Through the use of dyes in a ‘paint-like’ style that is loose and fluid; the twisting, layering, stitching and felting of materials like alpaca fibres, objects emerge with a sense of three-dimensional collage. While the forms suggest nests, eggs, seeds, shells, webs, the tactile surfaces reflect sensual experiences of taste, smell, touch. Combined, her recent works contain symbolic motifs that comment on the dichotomy of human dependence but also our impact on the environment.

Elizabeth studied Fine Art (RMIT) and throughout her creative career she has worked in a range of roles. Her passion in all aspects of art, together with teaching Secondary and
VCE Art and Design provides her with a wealth of experience and techniques to utilise when making her own artwork.

Link to Elizabeth’s Art Aviso profile

Elizabeth was provided with the following page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopedia:

Volume 1
The Wonders of Plant life in Forest, Field and Garden.
How Plants Live and Breathe – How seeds are distributed

About this Artwork
Price: 350 EUR

Page 295 – – The mist of my dreams – My work is very much based on landscape and nature. I spend my daily life in close relationship with both. In addition to art, my activity is also work in the countryside, which provides me with total communion with the life cycle so expressive in nature.

When I received, “The Wonders of Plant life in Forest, Field and Garden, How Plants Live and Breathe – How seeds are distributed”, I felt (again) something very close to communion.
So, as the world is going through a phase as unknown as it is demanding, in which we had to adapt and collect at home to preserve and protect lives, namely those who are most vulnerable, I started working with a new tool, completely initiatory. It had a very harmonious function, it took my time, body and spirit very intensely. I gathered the necessary materials and without thinking I dedicated myself to reproducing images in Linogravure.
I spent days digging linoleums and gouging out my landscapes, details of nature, where I believe we can feel how plants live and breathe, or even the passage of the seeds. I believe that when we turn to nature and for its protection we save the world and preserve the species that inhabit it.

About Inês

My work arises from a continuous exercise developed between painting and drawing. An artistic practice organised without concern for exact representation and where, through my hand, balance in the image is sought between its conception and freedom of self-determination, where the pictorial image acquires its own language as a kind of free writing.

My creative process is situated in the moment – in the present, in feeling – and opens itself to the imaginary plane, enabling the creation of other images which become detached from their referent.

Ultimately, they may all be the same landscape; an image I paint or draw over and over again, but which is always begun with a fresh perspective. A way of seeing in which the physical and mental, the present and memory converge. On a plane where the strange and the familiar are blurred, giving rise to new landscapes.
Just like the mist that invades my dreams.

Link to Inês’ Art Aviso profile HERE

Inês was provided with the following page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopedia:

Volume 1
The Wonders of Plant life in Forest, Field and Garden.
How Plants Live and Breathe – How seeds are distributed.