We are lucky enough to have had Limone Art travel with us for the full Finders Keepers East Coast Tour. With the last stop done and dusted and another year drawing to a close we thought it a fitting time to chat with Georgia from her Bronte Beach studio, on multi-tasking passions, free expression and how Limone came to be.
Tell us more about the story behind Limone Art? Who makes the hand-painted ink work & embroideries? Where is the business based? Is it a full-time gig?
Limone Art is all created by me in my Bronte studio in Sydney. I hand paint all the art with ink, believing this gives a much more special and unique quality than prints. I also create embroidery art and hand-painted homewares. Limone Art is actually the fun side hustle to my other business baby, By . G (my jewellery label), which has also been part of Finders Keepers in Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne for the last couple of years. As By . G grows, it feels there is less time in the day for regular creativity so Limone Art is my free expression that just happens to be appreciated by others so has become a second business!
I always feel weird telling this story because I’m a fairly pragmatic person, but Limone – including the style of art, aesthetic for homewares, name and pretty much everything else – woke me up in the middle of the night during winter 2017. I then stayed up until the next day drawing, brainstorming and creating everything from the logo to Instagram, even a domain! I really feel like it is a channel for my creativity and has a lot to do with the creativity of my late mother who passed the year before. Painting and stitching is my meditation and has gotten me through some tough times this year, it’s such an enjoyable outlet. I feel incredibly lucky to do what I do.
Limone Art stall at Melbourne SS18 Finders Keepers beautifully captured by Photographer Samee Lapham
Tell us about your first collection. What was the inspiration behind it?
The first collection includes about 30 paintings which I reproduce to order painting in ink by hand so they are never exactly the same, custom embroideries made to order and a range of hand-painted ceramics and porcelain homewares including spoons, mugs, teapots, and pourers. I wanted to create art in different mediums as well as functional items to appeal to different customers, their unique living spaces, budgets, and practicalities. The aesthetic for the first range of pieces available is inspired by minimalism, abstraction, surrealism, cubism, Picasso, Matisse, the female form & nature, predominantly in a monochrome palette. I like to think that I create things that may remind people of the beauty of the simple things in life and what is really important.
Tell us about your inspiration for creativity? Is there a Finders Keepers designer who you admire?
I am often inspired by things that pop randomly into my imagination – nature, photographs, other artists both locally and internationally and life drawing classes. My creativity comes out at unexpected times and cannot be willed when it is not there or something isn’t evolving naturally. Pieces that appear simple actually take a long time as the exact curve of the lines and precision of smoothness are so crucial. Ideas usually transform a lot through many iterations into something quite different, those hours of creation are absolute magic.
I am inspired by the work of so many Finders Keepers designers including Bilboa, Bridget Bodenham and Nikau. I really appreciate the unique creativity of everyone involved as well as their hard work, tenacity and the multi-faceted skill set required to run a small business and stay inspired.
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