Louise Dear is a painter with a simple ambition - to create beautiful paintings.

She creates large, contemporary, figurative works. Passionate about colour - shocking, vibrant and intense – Louise is continually exploring the power it has to invade our senses and influence our emotions.

Louise works on large sheets of prefabricated aluminium, priming the surface then throwing, rubbing, pouring and dripping inks and dyes, glitter and glosses, to form a background - this is then sanded, scratched and distressed, depending on what image will be overlaid. Continually experimenting with a multitude of materials, she is seduced by their substances and fascinated with their movement, individual textures and how they respond to one another. As the painting evolves she becomes intrigued with the marks - how the line within a magnified face or body organically flows. Explaining, that it is as though the image has, at this stage, become a vehicle for the marks - selecting elements from a photograph and magnifying them to such an extent, creates a new dynamic.

The finished pieces are stylised and ordered, the line defining the independent sections of colour and texture.

Louise’s subjects exist on many levels, portraying innocence yet also the lack of it - the children are storybook beautiful, their unique spirit captured and immortalised in that perfect state. By securing a tender moment or snatches of childhood memories, they are incredibly sensual, captivating, reaching out to their viewer. Her portraits are sensually erotic, beautifully demure yet subtly provocative.

Influenced by Utamaro and the artists of the ‘floating world’ and more recently their influence on the Art Deco period of the early 20th century, Louise is a painter in love with painting; with a passion and urgent need to create.

Exhibition History

2016 'VICE' C R U S H Brighton BN1 1RB
2015 'RUDE' C R U S H Brighton BN1 1RB
2014 Canvas Gallery Wimbledon London
2014 The Bowie Gallery Totnes Devon
2014 Turner Barnes Gallery Chelmsford Essex
2013 The Bowie Gallery Totnes Devon
2013 Turner Barnes Gallery Chelmsford Essex
2013 Louise Dear studio|gallery Totnes Devon
2013 Canvas Gallery Wimbledon London- solo show
2012 Artica Gallery Brighton - solo show
2012 The Bowie Gallery Totnes Devon
2012 Castle Galleries London - 4 solo shows
2012 Castle Galleries Milton Keynes - solo show
2012 Canvas Gallery Wimbledon London - solo show
2011 Washington Green Fine Art ICC - solo show
2011 Artisan Gallery Epping Essex - solo show
2011 Castle Galleries Cardiff- solo show
2011 Castle Galleries Birmingham - solo show
2011 J’adore Brighton - solo show
2011 The Bowie Gallery Totnes Devon
2011 Artica Galleries - 6 solo shows
2010 Louise Dear studio|gallery Totnes Devon
2010 Artisan Gallery Kingston on Thames - solo show
2010 Castle Gallery Harrods London - solo show
2010 Westover Gallery Bournemouth - solo show
2010 Castle Gallery Exeter - solo show
2009 Louise Dear studio|gallery Totnes Devon
2009 The Brownston Gallery Devon - solo show
2009 The Bowie Gallery Totnes Devon
2009 AAF London and New York
2008 Roland Lewinsky Gallery Plymouth Devon
2008 AAF London Paris Amsterdam Glasgow
2008 Art at Five Brighton W. Sussex
2008 Louise Dear studio|gallery Totnes Devon
2008 Regatta Fine Art Norfolk
2007 Bel Ami Gallery Honiton Devon - solo show
2007 The Picture Room Dulwich London
2007 AAF London and New York
2007 The Dittisham Open Dittisham Devon
2006 AAF London Glasgow Bristol
2006 The Green Dulwich London
2006 Wills Art Warehouse Fulham London
2006 Rumour Totnes Devon
2006 Flowers Gallery Emsworth Hampshire
2006 Red Propeller Kingsbridge Devon
2006 Gallery 22 Totnes Devon
2005 AAF London and New York
2005 The Rill Centre Buckfastleigh Devon
2005 Collyer-Bristow Gallery Bedford Row London
2005 Heals Tottenham Court Road
2005 Artspace Totnes Devon
2005 Stewart Gallery Dartmouth Devon
2005 Coombe Gallery Dartmouth Devon
2005 Flowers Gallery Brighton
2005 Rumour Totnes Devon - solo show
2004 AAF London New York Sydney Glasgow
2004 Davidson’s Mount Street London
2004 Wills Art Warehouse Fulham London – 2 shows
2003 AAF London New York
2003 Envelope Gallery Arundel W. Sussex
2003 The Mill Studio Arundel W. Sussex
2003 Wills Art Warehouse Fulham Road London
2002 AAF London New York
2002 Fresh Art Business Design Centre London
2002 Otter Gallery Chichester W. Sussex
2002 Beatrice Royal Gallery Eastleigh Southampton
2002 Phoenix Gallery Brighton
2001 AAF London
2001 Royal Academy London
2001 Otter Gallery Chichester W. Sussex
2001 Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum Romsey Hampshire
2001 Beatrice Royal Southampton - solo show
2000 AAF London
2000 Beatrice Royal Gallery Eastleigh Southampton

Louise’s earliest memories are of her incredibly happy family life spent in such exotic locations as South Africa & the Far East. At the age of six the family returned to England & set up home in a small country village in the beautiful Hampshire countryside. Initially intending a career within the fashion business, Louise studied fashion design at Medway College of Art & Design yet with the spirit of adventure having been instilled so young, at the age of 21, she purchased a 1963 Bedford ambulance, painted it Honey Pink and promptly set off to see the world. Her time was spent working whilst consuming the sumptuous splendours of Europe; Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and dipping an inquisitive toe into the divine indulgence of North Africa. Returning home in 1987, Louise bought a three month return ticket to India yet did not return to England for a further seven years. Her adventures took her travelling extensively throughout South East Asia, continually gorging on it's extreme delights until eventually arriving in Darwin, North Australia. From here she travelled overland to Sydney where she & her partner set up home and Louise worked as an Exhibition Designer for Lego, Australia. In 1993 Louise came back to her roots, gave birth to her greatest creation, her daughter Lama and returned to full-time education. Now settled in the picturesque town of Totnes, Louise has been working as a professional artist since graduating from University College Chichester in 1998. Her fabulous adventures continue to enspire her work, creating paintings which are vibrant, passionate and intense with a sensual eroticism which are both provocative yet at the same time, demure.

AVAILABLE WORKS

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