 'It is not often one can truly say: 'today, I saw something different . . . her portfolio opens and you have before you something of wonder. The sheer beauty of her drawing, the depth of colour, the carefully chosen textures … Alexandra Milton’s art is a carefully woven collage of stunning proportions… - - David Bennett. Publisher and Creative Director, Boxer Books * I come from a family with a distinguished artistic heritage. My German-born grandfather, Erwin Aichele (1887-1974) was a celebrated wildlife artist. He painted the numerous birds and animals that he kept in the family’s private menagerie. Prior to that, he had been a war artist in the First World War. Some of my earliest memories are of visiting his spectacular Italianate villa in Southern Germany, a haunt of artists and intellectuals. The salons were filled with treasured antiques and objets d’art. The large garden was full of enclosures and aviaries for his wild boar, deer and birds of prey. It was intimidating to visit him in his studio: it smelled of cigars and turpentine and was filled with stuffed animals. These early impressions gave me a fascination for the natural world in all its wonder, as well as the desire to catch and recreate something of its beauty in my collages. In doing so, I feel a close artistic connection to my grandfather. I keep one of his bird studies in my studio, a continual source of inspiration.   My father, Wolfram, in his Paris studio  One of my father's characteristic watercolours | Collage has long been my favorite method of artistic expression.  I
collect hand-crafted papers from around the world. Among my favourites are Korean mingeishi paper, Thai silk thread paper, Himalayan khadi - made from lokta pulp - and Payhembury marbled paper. In my studio, I have more than 200 different sheets of hand-made paper from every corner of the globe. I like the different colours and textures of the paper and particularly enjoy shredding and tearing it in order to reassemble it into recognizable creatures. I use the paper in layers - sticking and colouring - in order to breathe life and movement into my animals. It is impossible to convey the texture of my work on a website. I hope you will be inspired to come to one of my exhibitions or open studio days to see the works for real. Please contact me by email and I will add you to my mailing list.  Erwin Aichele with one of his numerous birds  My father (left) is the distinguished artist, Wolfram (Aichele). Represented by the Parisian gallerist Jean-Louis Roque, his paintings hung alongside Paul Klee and Hans Reichel. His subtle use of colour has had a decisive influence on my art. I grew up watching him paint in his Paris studio. His teaching - and his circle of artist friends - were crucial to my artistic development. His semi-abstract watercolours of mountain landscapes have the quality of an artistic riddle: the recognisably figurative elements provide the key to unlocking the abstract. The subtle interplay of overlapping layers of colour create forms and spaces in which familiar elements of landscape can often by recognised. In the 1970s and 1980s, my father also produced collages that have a tactile quality that is enhanced by the intense colour. One of the highlights of my artistic career was to see my work exhibited alongside that of my father and grandfather at a special retrospective exhibition in Germany in 2009. Also exhibited were works by all of Erwin’s artist grandchildren. The symbol on my pictures - an acorn and a sprig of oak leaves - pay tribute to my family’s artistic heritage. My maiden name, Aichele, means ‘little acorn’ in Swabish German. ‘Alexandra’s collages are a stunning reinvention of the medium… She has an exquisite feeling for texture and colour, space and light. A highly accomplished artist.’ Irina Kronrod, Art Historian, formerly with the Getty Research Institute's Bibliography of the History of Art |