LAXMI HUSSIAN
Elegant and ethereal but also precise and geometric, Laxmi Hussain’s drawings and watercolours exist somewhere between the abstract and the realistic, often presenting what appear to be the free-flowing organic forms of nature through intricately ordered patterns. Her finely detailed line forms are rooted in a fascination with architecture, a subject she studied for several years before becoming disillusioned with the constraints and rigidity of the discipline and shifting her focus to the unconstrained creative possibilities offered by art.
Laxmi has been drawing for as long as she can remember. As a child in London, she would lose hours after school, sketching on the counter in her dad’s corner shop. But it is only since the birth of her first child a few years ago that Laxmi has turned her passion into a profession. Re-inspired by the irrepressible joy in creativity shown by her children, she picked up the pencil once again, finding artwork to be a valuable means of reclaiming her own identity amid the emotional blurrings of motherhood.
Her inspiration comes from the forms encountered in everyday life, from the patterns of home interiors, the natural shapes of the outdoors and the geometries of architecture. Working in several different media, usually at night, Laxmi is driven by experimentation, constantly exploring new techniques and searching for the shapes and subjects they express best. Often, her work includes elements that appear incomplete – a bird reduced to an outline or a face with an absent feature – obliging the viewer to pause and engage with the artwork, filling in the absences themselves rather than just dismissing it and moving on.
