Louise Marie Barnwell

Though she was born in 1983 in Calais, France, she spent her childhood and adolescence in her family

home in a small village not far from there. From an early age she began drawing and painting and very

quickly developed a love for everything related to Art. She was influenced at an early age by the water

colour artwork painted by her great grandmother and also her grandfather, the latter being very gifted in

artistic and industrial drawing. The first true artwork that she accomplished was inspired by the

painting ‘The Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh which she reproduced on a much larger scale on the

wall of her bedroom!

In high school, her drawings were remarked upon by her Art teacher and classmates. Her parents

encouraged her to embrace the realm of Art because of her gift and it is in this way that she began to

express herself through her drawings and paintings.

Unfortunately, at the age of 14, she sunk into depression. Her art was influenced by this and it also

helped her to slowly to overcome this illness. Looking through her work at the time one can discern

two periods: a dark period which bears testimony to her internal turmoil and a lighter period

where her work became progressively more colourful and brighter reflecting her gradual success in

combatting and overcoming her angst.

In 2008, she learned computer graphics in France. In 2009-2010, she was initiated into sculpture and

modelling by working with a group of artists. From 2012 onwards she continued to perfect her

watercolour technique. From 2015 to 2017 she attended Fine Art courses in the Hauts de France. Then,

from 2018 she pursued similar courses for two years at Morley College in London.

Louise is mostly self-taught and also experiments with various techniques in other artistic fields.

Partly West Indian by origin through her father Louise particularly favours the bright colours and hues

that she saw in Trinidad and Tobago. She enjoys travelling a lot both in Europe and further afield

foreign countries. She has been inspired by her various trips and the places she visited. She also likes to

escape on the magic flying carpet of her dreams and imagination.

Her art is not confined to any particular style. Following her mood her work can be abstract,

figurative, realistic, or surrealist. She draws her inspiration from her favourite artists such as Vincent

Van Gogh, Jean -Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollack. She uses the paintbrush, the knife, brushwork

and her fingers to create a variety of different effects and reliefs on her canvases and employs acrylic

paint, oil paint, pastels, charcoal and from time to time watercolours.

She is perfectly content to remain in her studio for hours on end and concentrate on her art on a daily

basis.

In 2014, thanks to a contest, one of her collage works: ‘Untitled Collage’ was selected for an exhibition

at the Tate Britain in London within the framework of the Tate Collective - BP Spotlight - Source:

Texture and Collage.

In 2019, another of her works ‘Tourmente’ was selected to be exhibited on a screen accompanied by

other artists’works at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Louise has also exhibited her work locally in the North of France and now wishes to become known and

recognised at the international level. She has already sold some of her work in France and in Europe

including ‘Près de la rivière’100cms x 100cms, acrylic on canvas; ‘Retrouvailles’ 100cms x 100cms

acrylic and pastel on canvas; ‘Londres’ 70cms x 50cms, acrylic on canvas and her first self – portrait:

‘Auto portrait’ 40cms x 50cms acrylic on canvas along with many others.

For her, painting is not only a great love but also a means of sharing her ideals, her conception of the

world and a means of expressing her emotions and feelings through the medium of colours and shapes.