AWARD-winning Armidale poet Lizzie Horne, who this year won the prestigious national Tom Collins Poetry Prize and was recently shortlisted in the Australian Science Poetry Prize, is set to change hats.
Her hand-made prints go on show on Friday at the Chaucer on Bridge Street Gallery in Uralla.
Flowers Wild is Horne’s first solo exhibition, following participation in three group shows in Armidale this year.
More than 70 etchings, drypoint and linocut prints are on display including editions and unique variations. These have been inspired by wildflowers around the world, from Alaska, New York, Jordan, France, a Greek Island and New Mexico, as well as Armidale’s own magnificent magnolias.
After attending etching workshops with Australian master printmaker Basil Hall on the Greek island of Skopelos two years running, Horne was also able to print in the Santa Fe studio of accomplished US artist Joel Greene.
“I started my Armidale Magnolia prints in Greece and finished them in New Mexico with Joel,” she said.
“Camille’s sunflowers, Hasparren, was carved and proofed in France, then printed at the home of artist Stephanie Yiannias in Santa Fe, where I also began Santa Fe sunflowers.”
While in New Mexico, Horne also read her poetry to a rousing reception at Santa Fe’s Teatro Paraguas.
“My Aussie accent was no barrier at all,” she said with a laugh.
A member of the Black Gully Printmakers group based at NERAM, Lizzie Horne’s vibrant work has previously been seen at Armidale’s Gallery 126, the Armidale Art Gallery and at the Hoskins Centre at The Armidale School.
Horne will be attending the opening of Flowers Wild, where she will be happy to discuss her work with the public.
The exhibition opens at 6pm on Friday and is running at the gallery until 8 December.
