Python: 3.5 Matplotlib: 1.5.2 I'm trying to invert the tick labels on a Cartopy map, and I found this Matplotlib example: ax.axis[:].invert_ticklabel_direction() found here: http://matplotlib.org/mpl_toolkits/axes_grid/users/axisartist.html My problem is that any Axes object (or child class thereof) that I've experimented with says that the axis attribute is a *method*, not a sequence as I infer from the above example. How do I get the axisartists for a bog-standard Axes instance? Thanks in advance, Mike