The West Gallery | Quay Arts | Friday 3 October – Saturday 22 November 2014

Preview & Meet the Artist: Thursday 2 October 6 – 8pm, all welcome.

British abstract artist, Lisa Traxler, celebrates a decade of painting inspired by her life on the Isle of Wight. With a move to the Island in 2004, Traxler has since produced a prolific body of work in a variety of studios across the Island: aboard a houseboat in Bembridge, an old warehouse in Wootton Bridge, Quay Arts’ Jubilee Stores Studios in Newport, a Grand Design studio in Ryde to her present studio located on the south of the Island in a WWII Nissen Hut. Traxler’s vibrant paintings invite the viewer to engage with this exploratory journey through the decade and around the Island as the artist evolves her analytical approach to her painting practice. This visual diary offers an Island narrative from the perspective of emotional response with pieces on loan from private collections to recent new works.

For the artist, “a picture is the experienced, felt and intuited world – a connection with my immediate surroundings and way of life.” Experiences of traveling extensively in her previous job in London as a fashion editor and costume designer have been a huge influence in her artwork and have made her more aware of the sense of where she is, hence her preoccupation with ‘place’. This body of work is unique in its subject matter deriving completely from her life on the Island.

“Traxler’s art is manifested in a number of ways. Her conventional studio practice of making works on canvas sits within the English tradition of lyrical abstract painting that has its roots in the modernism that was established in St. Ives in the 1940’s.” Jonathan Parsons, artist & art advisor.

The works displayed are brought together for the first time on loan from private collections across the Island and South region. They investigate the process of making and enter a visual dialogue between works made in various environments, each of them underpinning a particular moment in the artist’s life. Written responses accompany the work to articulate this visual diary.

The exhibition will also include new paintings alongside a ‘studio setting’ transported from Traxler’s own studio to the gallery, revealing the working environment and making process behind her work. A small booklet will also accompany the exhibition with foreword by art critic, Peter Davies.

Her paintings can be found in collections throughout the UK, New York, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong & Italy.

Image: 'The Glass Room' 2014. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 150cm.

www.quayarts.org www.lisatraxler.com