Craft / Into the Land, studio glass by Nicole Ayliffe. At Beaver Galleries, until June 8. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

Nicole Aylliffe lives in country South Australia and just has to look out her window to view the landscape.

She also frequently travels through it to discover new places.

This artist explores the magical optical qualities of glass. Clear, crystal glass gives the viewer the privilege of viewing both the interior and the exterior of the form.

The processes require skills and patience. She uses both engraving and black and white photographs to create the decorative imagery.

There is a pleasing mix of rural scenes in these intriguing glass pieces. Several tall windmills are included, all in the foreground of a flat countryside.

The artist’s daughter’s pony has been photographed and is shown on a misty morning in a clearing. Another very rural piece is Scribbly Gums, in which a group of eucalypts are shown.

Forest, blown glass with engraved imagery and wax paint, shows tall, straight trees. A bubble is suspended in the centre of this work, which causes the light to reflect and refract and create different shapes in the trees.

Reflecting another trip taken by the artist, Yalata Beach, in blown glass features a black and white photograph of this stunning landscape, which is in the far west of SA.

In addition to these landscape pieces, Ayliffe creates gentle and ethereal imagery of Bohdi leaves and Hawthorn leaves.

Forms with gingko biloba and poppy imagery are strong, the motifs standing proud on the form, which has been sandblasted. The glass form of Gingko Biloba 4 is highly polished, clear and strong.

Ayliffe exhibited at Beaver Galleries four years ago, and she continues to show accomplished work, which is grounded in nature.