Sea Sanity IV
Oil on canvas, 2022,
100cm x 100cm x 4cm,
Original Sole, Private Collection
Limited Edition Print available
Freedom of expression was what Louise was aiming for in her Sea Sanity series. Louise was exploring different and more adventurous brush strokes and painting to music, whereby the process of applying paint to canvas become almost a dance. This can been seen in these beautiful, colourful and free looking images.
When the country was just about to emerge from the most recent lockdown in April 2021, Louise a lover of the sea and cliff walks was out one morning on her usual cliff walk with her springer spaniel Monty. Startled by something in the long grass, Monty ran in front of Louise and she misplaced her foot on uneven ground. Hearing 3 loud cracks, Louise know immediately that her leg had broken in 3 places. It was a saga of coastguard rescue, ambulance, hospital, surgery and 3 months in a cast with bed rest.
Louise had previously had a very busy lockdown, painting and opening her gallery in 2020, so this forced rest of 3 months became her lockdown.
Once mobile again, sea swimming and sea walking was part of Louises prescribed physiotherapy. As a result Louise spent hours in the water, walking up and down chest deep in the waves.
“It was incredibly therapeutic, the sea, the cold, the water, the texture of sand, the cliffs and wildlife around me, I became addicted to the routine of walking in the waves everyday. I had plenty of time to think and create paintings in my head while I walked”. Once more steady on her feet again and back in the studio, the resulting paintings by Louise are her Sea Sanity series, “the sea became my close friend and supported me, literally and metaphorically through my early recovery period, in these paintings I want people to feel what I experience while in the water, to feel as through they are also diving in, to feel fresh, happy and free……”