Louise Fairchild
Many great artists tend to downplay the use of assistants,
feeling it somehow detracts from the finished work, yet
Louise Fairchild is far more generous. All is not quite as
it seems though. A photo on her website reveals that her
team of “artist’s assistants” consist of a taxidermy barn
owl and an 11-year-old Jack Russell called Stuff.
If it initially appears that the artist’s tongue was planted
firmly in her cheek, Stuff’s role should not be downplayed.
“She not only keeps me company during what is essentially
a fairly isolated day, but has also, on our daily walks, led
me to the wood and river scenes that inspire me so much.”
After graduating in fine art from Reading University,
Louise spent many years as a commercial illustrator,
working for clients including British Airways and Marks &
Spencer. When she turned her attentions back to fine art
a decade ago, she drew inspiration from a childhood spent
exploring the Peak District and rural Ireland, and attempted
to seek out similarly lush landscapes near her London
home. “I utterly fell in love with a stretch of the River
Thames where I walk my Jack Russell every morning and
evening,” she says. “I walk in all weathers and in all lights.”
“My passion is the constant attempt to capture the
mysterious, mercurial nature of light, especially the magical
hour of dusk or sunrise. It’s a daily frustration that that
delicious, elusive light still seems so hard to capture,
but I won’t stop trying.”
Despite the fresh, modern look of her landscape
paintings, Louise says she has drawn on centuries-old
techniques to try and imitate the shimmering effects that
she experiences on her walks: “I’ve always been obsessed
with the Old Masters’ use of glazing and have spent years
and years in a bid to attempt to capture the ethereal light
that they managed to paint.”
On some landscapes, Louise will create texture in the
initial layers of oils, loading pigment on the canvas in an
attempt, she says, to “reflect the sediment of the land”.
Thin glazes of tinted oils are then applied, each after
the previous one has dried. The artist has recently
experimented with using metallic pigments in the initial
layers to add a contemporary twist. When a painting
such as Quiet Place is then seen under changing light
conditions, these layers react together in different ways,
creating complex effects that dazzle and beguile.
http://www.louisefairchild.comFresh
Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel
Artists & Illustrators 17