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.