By Mikayla van Loon
Experimenting with paints, colour and texture has led Olinda-based artist Jamie Saxe on a discovery of being in a flow state.
It was that act of complete mental concentration, and the natural environment, which inspired a collection of artworks now on display at the Round Bird Art Space in Lilydale.
Saxe’s exhibition combines a series of works finished in the last 12 months, alongside some older pieces.
His exhibition, rightfully named Flow, explores aerial landscapes, clouds, nebulae and the movement of water through the abstract.
“I’m trying to work on that idea of flowing movement. That’s the main thing that I’m trying to achieve through this and it’s replicating a lot of the patterns we see in nature,” he said.
For 15 years, Saxe’s artistic style was rooted in using alternative methods, where he would avoid touching the canvas.
“That was very much because as soon as I did, it started to look contrived, and what I’ve been trying to do is replicate all of those patterns that you might see in clouds or nebula or sand and soil,” he said.
“Then in about May I thought this is a really limiting rule so I decided to break the rule, which has allowed me to start to experiment with applying different techniques.”
This came about in the form of natural resources like soil and turmeric, as well as manufactured products like gauze, to bring various textures and colour to the works.
“I had a lot of trouble getting earthy colours for a while, and started using a lot of dirt from the Yarra Ranges,” Saxe said.
From asking his partner to pick any coordinates, one which turned out to be a huge glacier in the Himalayas, to just entering his studio and “looking at a canvas and going, ‘what do I do today?’” Saxe’s approach differs each time.
“Two turned into landscapes, which I’ve never really done before, but I’ve just come back from Tasmania and I went down to the Three Capes and some of the photos I’ve taken look like the painting.
“So I think I’m going to play around with things that allude to being a landscape, but aren’t really a landscape.”
Although always having a creative streak and studying art and literature, Saxe’s venture into painting was more personal and has developed over time.
“In about 2010 I just started doing something called Jackson Pollock Therapy, because he was a huge influence and just started dripping.
“But then I realised this doesn’t look like me, it looks like Jackson Pollock. So I just started to endeavour to work out how to get that spontaneous, kinetic movement, but do it in my own way.”
That’s when he discovered leaf blowers and pouring paint as ways of creating water-like movement.
Finding himself uninspired during the pandemic, Saxe said in the last 12 months he has regained his desire to paint and exhibit his work for the first time in six years, not only at Round Bird but also at the upcoming Open Studios weekend in March.
“Hopefully this will give the impetus to keep going,” he said.
Enjoying the freedom of working with new materials and using art as a therapeutic outlet, Saxe said this was what art meant to him.
“The thing that I love about this, I mean, writing music is fun when you’re looking for the happy accident, but to me, doing this is the most immediate sense of being in the now.
“Even if I set about trying to do something and it ends up not being that, because you just go with your gut and it takes you somewhere. You want to have a painting and have people relate to it, but just therapeutically, being in the now, is what I get out of it.”
Round Bird Art Space can be found at 174 Main Street Lilydale, above the cafe. Flow is on display until 12 March.
An artist talk is being held on Sunday 2 March, 1-2pm. Bookings for this event via website, roundbird.com.au/artspace
