who, what, when, where and why

Hi, I'm Louis, and I'm some guy at the bottom of the world just living his life, working his job and trying to create some things in any extra time available.

Up until the start of May 2024 I hadn't done any painting or visual art of any kind in my life aside from whatever scribbles were necessary in my early schooldays. I've always had thoughts, feelings, opinions and tomfoolery to express and had hitherto done so through music but for whatever reason that wasn't the right language for what I needed to say at that time. My first painting was done in my basement on a plank of wood using old house paints, and you could just about tell that it was a ship after I had told you that it was.

first ever

'Ship 1' - more like a flag than a painting

Since then I have been doing a lot more, and I do mean a lot.

I've been pretty determined not to 'learn' any 'skills' in particular as I have continued on with the paints - no classes, no tutorials, no practice of any kind. I once started a youtube video of 'how to paint wings' but after a minute or two I turned it off and didn't even paint the wings in the end - it felt disruptive to my main intent which as far as I can tell is to connect to whatever the source of creativity or inspiration is and put down on the canvas whatever I am picking up with, ideally, as little of Me and My Direction as I can restrain myself to.

Obviously it's me pushing the paint-covered brush or ruler or sponge about the place but as much as is possible I try to start off free of intentions and let what is emerging in each piece direct me in what to work toward.

I have gone so far as to google a few animals before painting them and to ask the advice of my most talented friends on things from time to time so all this is not to say that I don't hope or strive for improvement, I suppose I would like to be better at what I am doing - but the key factor is that I don't seek to attach 'what I am doing' to anything else that anybody else is, was, or will be doing. With trial and error, luck, judgment, effort and exuberance I'll slowly learn how to do whatever it is I am doing by the practice of doing it.

I've moved from the house paints onto a succession of Acrylic paints of marginally increasing quality - I'm irredeemably idiosyncratic and I usually try to use up All the crap old paint before starting the next grade, at this rate it will take years to get me onto oils. If you're reading this because you saw the paintings and wondered how or why anybody might do these things in these ways it's because he doesn't know any better, and quite possibly never will.

I am doing all this in my home in the beautiful city of Dunedin, New Zealand. I started in the basement and have graduated to the living room - There's paint absolutely everywhere nowadays.

I have sold 2 of these paintings at time of writing, it's something that I am just dipping my toes into and I can't pretend that I am comfortable in any of the roles of valuing, promoting, justifying, advertising or shipping any of my artworks. I have yet to get comfortable calling myself a painter or an artist let alone arguing that anybody else should look positively on any of it.

It will be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, I open up the shop part of this site - for the time being this is just going up as a record of the colours I have been letting out of my head.

Thanks for taking the time to look at the paintings, if you read all of this as well then kudos to you buddy!

Yours, Louis