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Lix North is a Brisbane-based visual artist who was born and raised in New Zealand. She paints large scale, realistic self-portraits that tell a personal story of universal emotions, fears and relatable inner journeys.
“I have always turned to self-portraiture, familiar yet confronting, as the modality through which I feel I can best express my concepts. Each work, each incarnation of self, explores my journey in a genetically compromised body through an increasingly toxic world,” Lix has previously described her paintings.
Lix North with her artwork Provocateur
Her unique way of seeing and looking at the world derives from the early days of her childhood living in New Zealand’s hill country. She moved to Brisbane in 2007 where she has since crafted a successful career as an illustrator, photographer and an artist.
“I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. I never had any other ambitions in life. It is a part of who I am. Never, while I was growing up, did I ask myself what I was going to be when I grew up,” she said. “I always had problems looking ahead and even nowadays I take it work by work, painting by painting.”
Mr George Fish and His Marvellous Monocular | 36 x 29.6cm | Oil on Tyvek, mounted on board
Lix’s creative process is as detailed and fascinating as the finished paintings. It all starts with an idea taking shape in her head that then gets meticulously planned and finetuned to the finest detail. “My compositions are carefully contrived; from the design and construction of the elaborate props to palette choices and key conceptual elements. I love the interplay between contemplative space and ornate detail, the juxtaposition of the commonplace with the wonderfully strange.”
“When I start to form concepts in my mind, I get very clear visual images that I need to turn into reality. I get almost anxious before I find a visual way to express that. That very specific thing that has formed in my mind, and all those details, need to be transferred to the canvas,” Lix explained her creative process. “[The creative process] is a tool that helps me deal with self-doubt and anxiety. The painting part of it is when I can really relax. I have gone through that really turbulent time of planning and preparation and now my mind can just let go and follow the plan.”
Vanitas or Valhalla (Barbarian Selfie) | 60 x 35cm | Oil on canvas
The painting phase of her creative process, while the most relaxing, is also the most time consuming. “Forming the ideas take a few weeks, preparation process can take anything up to a week, but painting it takes hundreds of hours. Smaller paintings will be around 150 hours, while large works can take over 400 hours.”
Lix’s paintings are very detailed and possess many elements of photorealism. This level of detail serves as a vehicle to make the concept more accessible to the viewer. “I often get asked that question [about level of detail]. For me, this level of detail blows away the perception of reality or what is seen on the canvas. When somebody knows it is done by hand, the fascination goes off the chart and that helps make my concepts more accessible and engaging.”
Détente | 120 x 85cm | Oil paint on aluminium composite panel
According to her own words, Lix has only ever been interested in people and animals as her subject matter. Specifically creatures, such as dogs, that engage with their eyes and that connection of the gaze is important and meaningful. This might seem contradictory considering that most people in Lix’s paintings wear goggles but for her, the importance of the eyes doesn’t lie simply in the gaze, but in what the eyes and the gaze symbolise. “Some of my favourite artists deal with landscapes but it doesn’t suit my creative process. That connection to another being is very important to me and excites me greatly. Portraits and that connection I mentioned can have such an impact on a person.”
Props, conceptual elements, play a vital role in Lix’s compositions. The props carry symbolic significance and the juxtaposition of them tells a story. “Goggles represent seeing life through different lenses and the importance of a different perspective, being a visionary. The canary, then again, has always been my totem,” she told. “Since I was a teenager, I have always had health struggles with genetic autoimmune condition. As my doctor said, my condition, and the fact that it made me very sensitive to all things, meant that I was like a canary in a mine shaft.”
Battle Playlist | 120 x 87.5cm | Oil paint on aluminium composite panel
The list of symbolic props is much longer than that though. There are the steam punk gas masks; the protection of herself against the environmentally compromised world, the Celtic patterns and elements that reflect her Nordic genetic heritage and the juxtaposition of the ancient symbols and patterns next to contemporary, modern objects such as the Apple Eardrops. And it is all flavoured with a little bit of black humour and wit. “It is always funny to watch at someone trying to eat a lollypop with a gas mask on!”
Provocateur | 100 x 100cm | Oil paint on aluminium composite panel
Susi Muddiman OAM, Director at the Tweed Regional Gallery was a member of the judging panel this year.
“I’m drawn to narrative works, especially those with attention to detail, so Lix’s painting caught my eye, and my interest. I was immediately intrigued. I’m fascinated by self-portraiture too as a genre, and there was something alluring in the contrived, yet challenging image,” Ms Muddiman described the winning painting. “The many metaphors in this work allow multiple readings for its audience. I admire the juxtaposition of the key elements of the composition – the canary in the coal mine analogy is central and omnipresent here, and although this practice has been phased out in mines, the idea lives on in our society on as a metaphor for serious danger to come. The vintage ventilator indicates a preparedness by the bold modern warrior woman, yet it’s set against the fragility of the canary and the lacy bodice. I see the spiral of lurid coloured candy in the perceived innocence of the lollipop as a nod to the often sweet and sugar-coated modern world we exist in. The image is provocative, just as its title suggests. Congratulations to Lix!”
Insurgent | 91 x 91cm | Oil on canvas
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