24 - Louise Fletcher Art

As 2022 comes to a close, I find myself reflecting over the last year. I always try to take time during the holidays to look over what I accomplished and what I want to invest my time in over the days to come. My personal ritual is to take time journaling. I tend to do what is called stream of consciousness writing - which basically means you write whatever comes to your mind without a filter. No judgment or trying to make it sound perfect - just writing. You would be surprised what comes to the surface when you do this. I also like to take some time to dream. To really allow myself to think about what I want to try or do - even if it seems unattainable or silly. My exploration into dreaming about what I wanted to explore in 2022 is how I discovered Louise Fletcher. 

Louise is an artist working mostly in an abstract style. When I see her art, I see someone who wants to explore possibilities. I find myself really drawn to abstract art - if you couldn’t tell from the recent artists I have been featuring on Quin. This might be because of the emotion that really comes through in abstract pieces. Louise’s use of layers, colors, and shapes really stir the artist in me. Not only is Louise an amazing artist - she is also a teacher. It was no coincidence that I wanted to feature Lousie at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. If you find yourself longing for creativity and expression, you should really visit Louise’s website and dive into all of the amazingly rich resources she has to offer. I know you will find inspiration to feed your inner artist and explore your creativity in a deeper way. 

A Different View

Can you tell us about yourself and what you do? 

I call myself an expressionist painter because I like to work both abstractly and figuratively, but whatever I'm painting, it's about expressing a feeling or emotion rather than showing how things look. But I am also a teacher. I run an amazing membership group for artists called Art Tribe and also teach an annual course called Find Your Joy. But besides the paid education, I love to teach for free and have a Youtube channel and some free courses on my website.

What drew you to creating abstract paintings?

I can't always say what I want to say without painting abstractly. An emotion doesn't look like anything but it still exists ... how else can we show it but to paint abstractly?

Backwater

You have a lot of amazing classes that you offer for artists. Can you share more about Find your Joy and what artist's should expect from this course?

Find Your Joy is quite a rare course in that it doesn't teach you how to paint like the teacher (me!). Instead it is about finding your own unique voice - understanding what you want to express and how you want to express it. I believe that we all come into this world born to be ourselves - then life gets in the way and we lose ourselves. But we can find our way back if we simply follow the joy, by which I mean, do the things that feel easy, relaxed, enjoyable, exciting ... follow your curiosity and always do what feels exciting rather than what you think you should. When we apply this to our art making, it means we make choices - colours, marks, shapes, media, substrates etc - and each authentic choice we make brings us closer to our true selves. So if I love cool colours and gentle marks and you love saturated reds and bold marks, we will make very different art, but both will be authentic and exciting. And when we follow the joy this way, not only do we find our way to our own unique voice, but other people respond. Because everyone is looking for art that excites them in some way. They're looking for something different. And when they find you, doing your own authentic thing, some of them will resonate with what you're doing. Finding your joy is the way to have fun with your work, but it is also the way to improve your art AND to make much higher sales.

Better Days

I love your podcast Art Juice. How did that come about? 

I had met Alice once before and chatted to her online a few times and I just had a sense that we would click together. I respected her art but also her business savvy. So I plucked up my courage and messaged her with the idea of a podcast. Turns out she had been thinking the same thing and so we agreed to try a few episodes and see how it went. We collaborated on everything - the music, graphics, copy, editing - and it turned out that we worked well together. Three and a half years later, we're still here. 

Chalk Mark in Rain

Is there anything that you are challenging yourself with currently? 

Very much so. I am always trying new things. Recently I have returned to realism - albeit with some abstracted elements - and I'm very interested in portraiture. I've been exploring my fascination with the British artist Tracey Emin, who I admire greatly. I started out making portraits of her as a way to understand exactly why I admired her so much - but that soon morphed into an assessment of my ideas about myself and I am now creating a series of self portraits. I want to show deep emotion and not just surface appearance and this is challenging for two reasons ... 1) that is hard to do and I am still learning and 2) some people are finding these self portraits quite confronting. Perhaps they viewed me as quite a one-dimensional person (after all I teach about joy!) and now they are seeing other sides of me. It is interesting that I'm having to push past my own beliefs about pleasing others, which is a challenge in itself.

Flowers In the Rain

Are there any people in particular that have influenced your style or art?

 Any artist who is about emotion - so, Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, the abstract expressionists (especially Jackson Pollock), and in the modern day, Tracey Emin, but I am also influenced by conceptual art, in as much as I need to have an idea behind what I'm making. It's not enough for me to make something that looks nice - I need to feel there is more to it than that.

Glaisdale in Blue

How do you find inspiration? (Or How does inspiration find you?)

I follow the breadcrumbs ... I literally follow what feels good. I follow the creative nudges even when they don't make sense, because I know it all comes together in the end. For example, I had an idea to make work in response to the poetry of Ted Hughes, who was born in my part of the world. It began as just a fledgling idea and I had no idea what would happen with it, or whether anyone would know who he was or care. But I started working and then a series of chance events led to the idea for a book and I found a publisher, and then got permission to use the poems in my book, and then all of a sudden I was writing a book about my love of this poetry and my art practice. The book became the exhibition. Once it came out, I put the paintings up for sale and they all sold within 24 hours. I could never have planned that - I just followed the nudges and it all unfolded. The whole project made sense looking backwards but at the start I didn't know any of that. 

Heart’s Desire

What has been your biggest struggle as an artist? How did you overcome it? 

Believing that it was possible. In 2018, I was absolutely convinced there was no way I could make a living as an artist. I had a mortgage and bills and I was the main breadwinner in my family. But then I just decided to believe something else. And once I decided to believe it was possible, all sorts of things began to shift and ideas began to come in. I now watch people limiting themselves because of their own beliefs and I see myself just a few years ago. I KNOW they could do it, but not until they allow themselves to believe.

Lilac Dreaming

Do you have any advice for artists who struggle with motivation or fear of getting started on their art journey? 

Yes, follow the joy. Seriously. If you love what you do, you'll keep going and if you love what you do, it will show in the work and people will respond. It sounds simple and it is. We make this so much more complicated than it needs to be.

Nightfall

What advice would you give to other artists who are trying to juggle several projects at a time? 

Choose consciously.  It's easy to get sucked into all sorts of things - or to start all sorts of things - that you don't really want to do. It's also easy to stick with things that have passed their sell-by date. So know your 'why' (why do you do this, what is your mission?) and then continually make choices. Drop things that are not serving a purpose or bringing joy. So for example, you might keep your part-time job in Starbucks because it pays the bills, so it serves a purpose. And you might keep teaching kids after school because you love it. But you might drop your role as treasurer of the local art club because you don't get paid and you no longer enjoy it. And the choices can also involve home - you might choose not to keep your house spotless, or not to see that friend you don't even like, so that you have more time for painting.

Snowed In

What is something that has really pushed you as an artist?  

My determination not to waste my life. I was adrift for a long time - I lost my way and moved away from art for many years. I found my way back aged 50. Now, almost 10 years later, I am acutely aware that I have limited time on this planet. I do not want to waste a single moment. I hear people talk about going gently and moving slowly and it's like a foreign language to me. I want to barrel forward, full steam ahead. My mission is to express my voice as fully and authentically as I can AND to help other artists do the same. I especially focus on women artists as I feel the world needs women's voices more than ever. 

Wuthering Heights

What are you currently working on? 

My self portraits (mentioned above) which I have a feeling might become something larger - but as yet that hasn't unfolded. How exciting not to know!

For more resources and to follow Louise, visit Lousie Fletcher’s website

Follow Louise on Instagram - @louisefletcher_art