Into the Desert - Plein Air Paintings from the MacDonnell Ranges

The paintings in this exhibition were made during a three-week residency in Alice Springs and the surrounding MacDonnell Ranges. One of Corinne Loxton's hopes in painting the desert was to connect with nature, to explore her relationship with the centre of this ancient land. She observes "Like many desert pilgrims before me, the unfamiliar environment of the desert brought me face-to-face with my vulnerability. The ancient landforms and spaciousness of the place confronted me with my own fragility, the limits of my capacity and ultimately, my finiteness. I encountered silence and space, the gentle, faithful companionship of the earth, the creatures, and trees." For Loxton, painting en plein air there seemed an imperative, a deeply personal journey, a pilgrimage of the soul. The works on exhibit pay homage to nature’s knowing, abiding spirit and human experiences of struggle, endurance and hope in that environment. You are invited to view them at Stella Downer Fine Art in Sydney, and as you experience them, to connect deeply with the landscape, your self and a shared humanity. Ian Grant, a highly regarded landscape artist and former Head of Painting Studies at COFA, UNSW, will facilitate the artist’s talk and officially open the exhibition.