All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. - this artist loves them all!
Whenever I’m asked "So what kind of art is it that you do" I always say “Beautiful  oil paintings inspired by nature”. That has been my raison d'être since becoming an artist.

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Cave painting in Lascaux

The simple idea that nature is beautiful and artists want to capture it is as old as art itself. The cave  paintings at Lascaux in France demonstrate art's purpose was not only showing the importance of the hunt and recording an event, but also the animals that were stalked or chased during the hunt. I remember very clearly the first time I opened Gombrich’s “The story of art” to see Albrecht Durer’s portrait of a hare and thinking how can it be possible that someone can create something so lifelike simply with a pencil? I’ve created a few hares over the years, each one different, surrounded by different flowers or crops and in different colours,  shapes and sizes.

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Albrecht Durer. Hare

©Louise Luton Hare in the Heather

One of the big challenges for a painter (landscape, animal, anything really), is to work out what to keep in and what to leave out. What we leave out is just as important as what we put in. Most people tend to notice my vibrant use of colour in my animal paintings. A Stag does not have blue and turquoise in it, a hare doesn't have purple ears. I'm a natural colourist, I like adding colour. I'm a painter! I have to bring something to the party that is different to a photographer.

©Louise Luton." Brody"

Interestingly I think my use of colour in animals has stemmed from so many years of landscape and seascape painting. Trying to capture that particular shade of blue in the sky has led me to be able to use colour in really exciting ways even when I'm painting something that is essentially a series of browns and greys. I can add bright colours that really bring the animal to life.
I believe that artists can give the viewer a clearer sense of what they might be looking at in nature. The very selection of colour life and personality in each of my works is communicating something different to the viewer other than what I saw in the first place. It is the fine line between recording the event or the place or the person or the animal and bringing a story to any of those elements so that the painter provides the viewer with something more.

©Louise Luton. Dusk at the Roman baths.

Something I’ve noticed over the years,  when people see my animal paintings they often say hello to the animal! Anyone my age will remember Johnny Morris and Animal magic and perhaps it’s inherent in us to put on silly voices when we think of animals; that level of anthropomorphism is very strong in the British psyche. I have heard so many young people making moo noises at my cow and squealing with delight when they saw a happy muddy piggy.

So what does all this tell us? 
It tells me very clearly that I'm part of a long tradition of artists who have always been inspired by nature and inspired by what they see around them.
All of my landscapes are of places I live near, or have visited so many times. Most recently, my non-British animals, like my lions and elephants have been bought be people who have seen those animals on their travels. The painting of the animal itself reminds them just as much of a holiday, as a picture postcard view of place. 

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© Louise Luton "Mae-Ja."