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The Body in Blue: Laxmi Hussain’s London Home and Studio Showcase Her Figural Art

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BohemianIssue 14 — Spring Beginnings

The Body in Blue: Laxmi Hussain’s London Home and Studio Showcase Her Figural Art

April 5, 2021

As a girl, Laxmi Hussain loved spending afternoons drawing in her father’s corner store in St. John’s Wood, London: “I used to spread my paper and pens on top of the ice cream fridges looking out the window.” She went on to earn a degree in architecture and to work in design. She’s now a mother of three, and when her oldest was in pre-school, she rediscovered making art through him: “the more he drew, the more I did; we’d do it together.”

Laxmi has since focused on being an artist and during her recent pregnancy—her youngest is 10 months old—she began painting the female form. Her latest series, newly available from Partnership Editions, is dedicated to her mother, who she lost to cancer in 2018 at age 64. The collection is in shades of blue, a color Laxmi associates with her mother: “she’s all around me and in everything I do.”

Photography by Laxmi Hussain, unless noted.

Laxmi&#8
Above: Laxmi’s work is often composed of a single continuous line or two. She works in Wembley Park, near Wembley Stadium in a new housing complex with artist spaces created by Second Floor Studios. The group is dedicated to establishing affordable studios for artists and “promoting the role that art, craft, and design can play in the regeneration of towns and cities.” Photograph by Maria Bell.

Home

Laxmi, her husband, and their three kids—ages , 7, and months—live in a 40s house also in Wembley, in northwest London. A group of her small paintings are shown here. Her husband works in systems for the Marks & Spencer food department.
Above: Laxmi, her husband, and their three kids—ages 10, 7, and 10 months—live in a 1940s house also in Wembley, in northwest London. A group of her small paintings are shown here. Her husband works in systems for the Marks & Spencer food department.
The all-white kitchen is Laxmi&#8
Above: The all-white kitchen is Laxmi’s favorite room. Its oak table and bench came from John Lewis and were a gift from her mom. The Karlsson Flip Wall Clock is available from Royal Design.
The industrial-style cage lights are from Made.
Above: The industrial-style cage lights are from Made.
Between Mothers, part of Laxmi&#8
Above: Between Mothers, part of Laxmi’s series available from Partnership Editions, hangs on her bedroom wall. They’re acrylic on handmade Bhutanese paper—16-by-28 centimeters, £360 each—and feature her mother’s favorite flower, the daisy. The rattan Marte Platform Bed is from Urban Outfitters, and the lamp is from H&M Home.
Laxmi&#8
Above: Laxmi’s son’s footprint and a Twist Candle by Dutch designer Lex Pott on a shelf in the bedroom.

Studio

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Above: “I went through a whole journey of exploring what it was I wanted to express in my art until I arrived at the body,” says Laxmi. The wall of pastels on heavy, textured paper are her Lines of Transition series. The blue lockers, for supplies and smaller works, are from Ikea’s PS Collection. The Breuer Cesca (or Cesca-style) chair was a street find.  &#8Above: Laxmi’s works are all one-of-a-kind drawings and paintings: “I use my art to represent the variety of different bodies I wish to see myself in. I was fed up with one body being the norm.” Her studio table is her sister’s old sewing table.
An old Ikea Industriell chair in the studio with Lines of Transition pastels and Between Mothers paintings.
Above: An old Ikea Industriell chair in the studio with Lines of Transition pastels and Between Mothers paintings.
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Above: “The papers I use become part of my palette,” says Laxmi. Shown here, her Vessel series of acrylic paintings on handmade cotton paper. The recyclable Kraft Paper Parcel Tape she uses is from Eco-Craft
See more at Laxmi Hussain (@thislaxmi).
Above: See more at Laxmi Hussain (@thislaxmi).

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