Images: Jonathan Rae
Artwork and styling:
Elle-Louise Burguez
Elle-Louise Burguez
makes you wanna take a dive into a tropical watermelon pool, escape into a
technicolour peach world and have a dreamtime about love and loneliness in a
pastel rainforest.
The Sunshine
Coast-based artist’s work has the same ethereal escapism of Cicely Mary Barker’s
illustrations while still being pervaded by a kind of raw uncomplicated
emotion.
“I want people to look
at my art and just feel playful again.
“It’s kind of
child-like and taking people back into that child-like view of life where
everything’s playful, everything’s fun, there’s not too many worries, and
simplifying life.
“And I guess as soon
as they look at it, I want them to feel either really positive or maybe it will
evoke a sad emotion in them. But as long as they’re feeling something in my
art, that’s really great.”
Elle’s works seem
unadulterated with a lo-fi purity. Ostensibly they seem simple and
euphoric. But in actuality many are highly detailed and don’t always present innocent
blissful themes.
The scenes, her
characters, are in a way mesmerising. They can envelop you in a dreamy
wonderland, which is both enticing and melancholy.
It comes from all different places.
“Sometimes it’s really
personal,” says Elle.
“I might recreate a
scene in my day or something I’ve done and enhance it to make it a bit more
interesting.
“Or I might see
something on the internet or in a magazine, like a piece of furniture that I
like and I’ll draw that or I’ll just randomly create other stuff around it.
“I think I just really
daydream when I do it and just maybe all different random influences come
together at once and then they just explode.”
Elle’s family is laced
with musicians; her late grandfather was in a jazz band, she has a pianist for
a father and many of her extended family members teach music.
For a while, Elle
thought her vocation lay in music.
“When I was a kid I’d
always draw, just for fun.
“I’d literally draw so
much and make my own magazines and stuff and design stuff.
“I kind of gave that
up when I got older and focused more on music and film.
“Then I think I broke
up with my boyfriend or something else and thought, ‘I need to do something, I
need to focus my energy into something else.’
“And I just went out
and bought a packet of Textas from the shop, which I love, those Connect-A-Pens,
and went home and started drawing and really loved it.
“As soon as I started
sharing what I did, that’s when I became obsessed with it.”
Elle-Louise works with
Textas, watercolour paper, watercolour pens, watercolours and just fine ink
pens to draw detail.
Like many artists,
drawing is a process of catharsis for Elle. It’s part of that deep mediative
quality of absolute focus, distraction and ultimately creation.
“Well a lot of the
time it’s really healing for me and it’s like my escape and if I’m feeling a
certain way and I draw, I know I’m going to feel 100 per cent better
afterwards.
“The whole process of
it is really enjoyable for me. Just getting lost in my own world, it is escapism.”
Take a minute. Let
yourself get absorbed into Elle’s transcendental paradise. All everything is
for a moment is just your own private Elysium.
This is a wonderful narrative with respect to your intrinsic make-up and drivers, Elle. The photography reflects the inner 'lovely' you. Luv all of the art images, too. A world devoid of competitive spite...more of it, please.
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