Lousie Gains Contemorary Art

About Me

See more of my Art-work on

http://www.behance.net/LouiseGains

http://www.mousespottersguide.com

http://www.brooklynartproject.com/profile/LouiseGains

http://www.artreview.com/profile/LouiseGains

Things and places which have inspired my work: Coastal places, bits of forgotten wood - shingle - rusty railings - peeling paint - South Downs - hidden unkempt tangles of plant growth un-guarded by humans - tiny flowers dotting a field in an un-known pattern - Clouds! - hand-made woven fabric, multi coloured and multi textured threads - animal fur, all that mixture of colour! - bright leaves on a winter's day - sharp shadows when the sun is too bright - My Digital camera, I love the chance to catch what I see and to be able to take it home with me to play about in my computer and re-draw and re-discover the image again and again.

About the paintings in the Red Splash series - came about after a winter's drive along the Wye Valley towards Monmouth - in a dirty lay-by, the weak sun shone through the thinning trees leaves, hitting a patch of brambles - they were on fire with light! The other plants there was Old Man's Beard, long trailing twisty tendrils threading between the brambles - all such a complex pattern and to top it all the glint of water from the river behind - it was magic!

I was born on the South Coast and moved to Wales in the 1980's. The painting Parsley Shake Cool and its companion piece Parsley Shake Warm was based on a field near the A48 in Chepstow, one early Sunday morning when the dew was tinted with frost and the old dried parsley heads were still hanging on in the hedge, the minty green of this caught my imagination. Once the sun had risen the field colours warmed and the grass became a lovely warm golden yellow.

Students often ask - what inspires you - can you tell me what an Artist should be? Here is a thought or two: - the main thing which an Artist should have - is the ability to look, really look and to try and understand what they are really seeing, not what has been told by others, or shown by others before. To make an image which has come about by your own observation and interpretation - gives something valuable back to the world. It says, I was here and I witnessed this.

I love complicated shapes and ideas..so even a simple field of grass if seen close up reveals many layers and separate forms and colours ...as a way to understand them I have tried to paint them. Often the best paintings have been after I have tried to express every twisted growth and every leaf but have ended up simplifying it all by scratching away the detail...back to the longer view !!! In the process I have looked and found and understood.... and the painting is the result of that activity.

I love my painting Dandelion Sea perhaps the best...it was made after many hours over a week standing in the field as the best show of dandelion heads ever seen before on this planet took place - summer 2006 - not a single summer since has had any thing like it!

I wanted to catch the thought of it not the exactness of it .

For further information, please contact:

Louise Gains Contemporary Art - All Art-Work available as A3 Prints with archival inks, 50 Euro free post worldwide

Email: louisegains@hotmail.co.uk

BUY A4 size prints - £20.00 also from the Nearly Nice World Series on http://www.nearlyniceworld.com

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