Artist’s Statement

I believe that art is foremost about the communication of the essence of the artist's interior world and that it is this non-verbal language that allows us to appreciate art across culture, subject matter, and through time.

I come to botanical art with a life-long love of plants nurtured during childhood botanizing forays in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. My motivations are largely selfish in that painting and watching an image unfold while I work is sheer pleasure for me. An almost tangential goal is that of illuminating the deep beauty that exists in our natural world and that often goes unnoticed in contemporary society. I feel that our lives are monumentally enriched when we take the time to notice.

The genre in which I work has its roots in the traditions of the illuminated manuscript, and the early documentation of plants for medicine, science, and in the collections of patrons. Some of the goals of modern botanical art have changed but many of the techniques employed in its creation have not.

Biography

Louise has done work via commission by private individuals as well as for magazines, posters, books, signage and note cards. She also produces artworks with subject matter of her own choosing. These works are for sold as original works of art and also reproduced and sold as Giclèe art prints. Louise enjoys self-directed work, but also the interplay with clients. The collaborative process can create solutions that more than equal the sum of its collaborators.

Clients have included Kew magazine, Simon and Schuster, Horticulture magazine, Taunton Press (Fine Gardening, Fine Cooking, and Kitchen Garden magazines), Magazine Group of Meredith Corporation (Traditional Home Magazine), The Herb Companion magazine, the U.S. Forest Service, the Washington Native Plant Society, Rodale Press, The University of Washington, and the University of Washington Botanic Gardens.

She is represented in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation collection and other institutional, corporate, and private collections. She has been invited to contribute to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Florilegium Society as well as the Filoli Florilegium. Examples of Louise’s work are included in the book Today’s Botanical Artists published in 2008. She exhibits throughout the United States and Canada and is represented locally by Fine Impressions and Kaewyn Galleries.

Please visit her website at www.GreenStems.com