Interview: Louise Bradley
by Tamzin Lewis, The Journal
In an intriguing topsy-turvy approach to art, Louise Bradley has reinvented her style, as she tells Tamzin Lewis.
HOWEVER experimental, established artists so often get known for just one style of work. So how do they break the mould when stuck in a rut?
A different subject? A different medium? Or a different way of working altogether?
For Louise Bradley it was literally a case of turning her pictures upside down. Needing a break from painting detailed still lifes, Louise taped paper under her desk and working blind, started drawing in an ‘automatic’ way.
Louise, of Newcastle, explains: “My drawing can be very descriptive and observational and I had become tight. I was painting in an almost photographic way, and I needed to loosen it up so that pictures became more free and expressive of something different.
“So recently I have used a very instinctive approach, where I draw without looking at what my hand is doing and without being able to see the paper.”
Louise’s subject matter remains similar: she loves to draw plants and flowers which fill her studio, but the technique has changed.
She says: “I stick the paper underneath the desk and draw an object that I can see, moving my hand at the same time that my eyes move. This makes a connection between eyes, brain and hand.
“It is a more emotional, intuitive way of working, rather than copying. I still draw plants but my work is more about the forms and energy within the plant, rather than just the leaves and petals. I respond to the shapes in a different way.”
Louise teaches art and uses methods of ‘automatic’ drawing in lessons, sometimes encouraging students to use wax to draw so they can’t see what they are producing.
She says: “The whole point is to move away from habits, as over the years you develop ways of making marks which can become habitual rather than being a direct response to the subject.”
I wonder if ‘automatic’ drawing is an arduous process but Louise says it is a bit like mediation. “It’s lovely,” she reveals. “You have to be very focused but everything else leaves your mind and you concentrate on the subject in front of you.
“It does feel like something else has taken over when you do them. All the free drawing has also helped with the still lifes as they have also become more vibrant.”
Louise has a homely studio in 36 Lime Street, next to Seven Stories in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle, where she has worked for 10 years. The 41-year-old trained at the former Newcastle Polytechnic and her work has shifted from portraits to plants.
Her drawings, paintings, papercuts and prints are currently on exhibition at the new gallery at the front of the Lime Street building which is open on Fridays and Saturdays.
The papercuts, “solid lacy things”, are a development of Louise’s work stemming from automatic drawing. These have led to screenprints and also monoprints.
She says: “The papercuts happened very organically. I am really interested in pattern and repetition and fascinated by the repetitive patterns which happen in nature.”
Louise Bradley: drawings, paintings, prints, papercuts is at 36 Lime Street until Friday . The exhibition is open on Friday and Saturday noon-4pm. For appointments, email info@limestreet.co.uk
An open studios event is being held on November 29 and 30. Artists’ workshops will be open to the public from 10am to 6pm. An exhibition of prints by Bridget Jones and Catriona Jones will be in the gallery.
A different subject? A different medium? Or a different way of working altogether?
For Louise Bradley it was literally a case of turning her pictures upside down. Needing a break from painting detailed still lifes, Louise taped paper under her desk and working blind, started drawing in an ‘automatic’ way.
Louise, of Newcastle, explains: “My drawing can be very descriptive and observational and I had become tight. I was painting in an almost photographic way, and I needed to loosen it up so that pictures became more free and expressive of something different.
“So recently I have used a very instinctive approach, where I draw without looking at what my hand is doing and without being able to see the paper.”
Louise’s subject matter remains similar: she loves to draw plants and flowers which fill her studio, but the technique has changed.
She says: “I stick the paper underneath the desk and draw an object that I can see, moving my hand at the same time that my eyes move. This makes a connection between eyes, brain and hand.
“It is a more emotional, intuitive way of working, rather than copying. I still draw plants but my work is more about the forms and energy within the plant, rather than just the leaves and petals. I respond to the shapes in a different way.”
Louise teaches art and uses methods of ‘automatic’ drawing in lessons, sometimes encouraging students to use wax to draw so they can’t see what they are producing.
She says: “The whole point is to move away from habits, as over the years you develop ways of making marks which can become habitual rather than being a direct response to the subject.”
I wonder if ‘automatic’ drawing is an arduous process but Louise says it is a bit like mediation. “It’s lovely,” she reveals. “You have to be very focused but everything else leaves your mind and you concentrate on the subject in front of you.
“It does feel like something else has taken over when you do them. All the free drawing has also helped with the still lifes as they have also become more vibrant.”
Louise has a homely studio in 36 Lime Street, next to Seven Stories in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle, where she has worked for 10 years. The 41-year-old trained at the former Newcastle Polytechnic and her work has shifted from portraits to plants.
Her drawings, paintings, papercuts and prints are currently on exhibition at the new gallery at the front of the Lime Street building which is open on Fridays and Saturdays.
The papercuts, “solid lacy things”, are a development of Louise’s work stemming from automatic drawing. These have led to screenprints and also monoprints.
She says: “The papercuts happened very organically. I am really interested in pattern and repetition and fascinated by the repetitive patterns which happen in nature.”
Louise Bradley: drawings, paintings, prints, papercuts is at 36 Lime Street until Friday . The exhibition is open on Friday and Saturday noon-4pm. For appointments, email info@limestreet.co.uk
An open studios event is being held on November 29 and 30. Artists’ workshops will be open to the public from 10am to 6pm. An exhibition of prints by Bridget Jones and Catriona Jones will be in the gallery.
