Born in Devon in 1961, Louise grew up in rural Surrey. After a foundation year at Brighton Polytechnic, she graduated with a Fine Art Degree at Norwich School of Art. Initially
specialising in equestrian and
animal portraiture, she moved to London
in 1990 and began to experiment with more free and flowing styles of painting,
capturing movement in dancers, horses and children. In 1997 she created a
multi-media show entitled “Created to be Awed by Man” which involved live
dance, music and poetry as well as Louise’s film and painted artworks.
This successful exhibition explored the relationship between man and horse, how
it helped to civilise man and how we value it today. It also made
comparison of the movements of horses and dancers, and classical and contemporary
styles. Louise’s common motivation for looking at horses is their means of
expression through movement. She aims to emulate the expression, indeed
the sensation of movement, using oil paint and charcoal. The use of
colour is vital to her paintings; she uses is to exaggerate a gesture or
emphasise the glamour of a situation when painting polo or racing.Very
often she splashes colour on to a painting to give a feeling of unity to the
composition or to suggest the direction in which the subject is moving.
She shows in great detail the way a horse conveys its thoughts and emotion by a
look in its eye, the angle of its head or the flaring of a nostril. Having
recently moved back to the Surrey Hampshire borders with her family, Louise has
produced some colourful, expressive paintings of the local woodland and
landscape. She uses techniques such as splashing and pouring paint then tips
the canvas to encourage the movement of the paint. The overall effect created
is quite random up close but at a distance the image becomes much more graphic.
Louise’s work has been included in numerous mixed exhibitions, and she has had
many successful solo shows. Since exhibiting in Dubai
last year Louise’s work is becoming sort after in Dubai’s renowned equestrian world.