Louisa Hope

Loading

Louisa is best known for her atmospheric seascapes, and is one of the Northwest’s most leading contemporary artists.  Art critic, Anne Ellis approached Louisa to write a piece on her work in 2005, after the interview she wrote this eloquent article that describes not only the intricate workings of Louisa’s practise but also the inner workings of the artist herself.

It is not the artist’s job merely to render the visible: rather to make the invisible discernable; to summon mountains, seas and clouds from the natural materials of the painter's palette. And that is just what Louisa Hope's most recent paintings, currently on exhibition in Manchester’s Artzu Gallery, manage to do: create that dissembling miracle called art.

She describes herself as an impressionist, but there is an intensity about her work that is much more expressive than the fleeting impressions of the nineteenth century movement. Nature may be the source but hers is no photographic record; rather it is the direct transposition of the feelings aroused in her by natural phenomenon. Louisa doesn’t paint a sunset; she portrays the elation inherent within that experience. For her as for Terry Frost, who also painted landscapes in abstract terms, “seeing is both looking and feeling”

Louisa confesses that, “The sky fuels the greatest emotions; I see it as an ever changing backdrop against which we live. It is immensely diverse and extremely romantic at times. I aim to evoke a similar mood..... and perhaps provoke something within the viewer that will bring them a little bit of magic.”

And there is a touch of alchemy about the technique that she has developed. Natural materials, interestingly shaped leaves and foliage, are gathered on her many walks. These are then processed into hand-made, roughly-textured paper that is layered onto boxed canvases and left to settle. No colour is involved just textures and muddy tones. Imagination is the principle part of this process.  Some pieces may require several layers of bronze and iron oxides, sand, paints and pastels, many of which are sanded down to reveal trapped colours from the inner layers to shine through; a sort of mechanical scrumbling that encourages the internal luminosity of the work onto the surface.

Creativity, for Louisa is a series of slow transformations consistent with delayed perceptions; and delayed perceptions are what make paintings come to life. She has found that being flexible and giving her composition time to change a little from her original idea, she has experienced some of her most creative moments. This slow maturation of a work is also what permits the possibility for multiple interpretations by viewers.