Louise Dionne

'Some people paint'

My mother says when I was 9 months old she sat me up in my pram and gave me crayons and paper, and I began to scribble. She also allowed me to draw and scribble endlessly on my bedroom walls at home, throughout my childhood.

At around ages 7 - 10, I entered the annual art competitions at my school, and won first prize every year. So, I have always painted, sketched all my life for as long as I can remember. I was the 'artist' at my grammar school, leading projects to decorate the classroom with various murals, and began helping other children with their p...

'Some people paint'

My mother says when I was 9 months old she sat me up in my pram and gave me crayons and paper, and I began to scribble. She also allowed me to draw and scribble endlessly on my bedroom walls at home, throughout my childhood.

At around ages 7 - 10, I entered the annual art competitions at my school, and won first prize every year. So, I have always painted, sketched all my life for as long as I can remember. I was the 'artist' at my grammar school, leading projects to decorate the classroom with various murals, and began helping other children with their pieces as well. My dream as a child, for when I was as 'a grown up' was to be a poor artist with no money living and painting in an attic, preferably Paris. The closest I have got to that is painting in a loft room for a few years, in North West London where I live, so not quite the same but near enough. I went to Harrow School of Art when I was 16, but because I was too young to start the next degree course I left and went on to work and study dental nursing, so that I could have a bit of money.

Since then I have run art classes after school for all ages, face painted, painted murals in peoples bedrooms, painted all sorts for pleasure and sold this and that to friends and colleagues. I used to work in a secondary school which is a Specialist Arts College within the Arts Faculty for fifteen years.

My passion is now leaning towards the abstraction of natural forms. I have taken thousands of photographs of various subjects, mainly the green and growing kind. For some of my work this helps me to create pieces; using photographs to paint from at the beginning of the process. I then, in return, take photographs of the paintings, and digitise, enhance, and manipulate the images on the computer, with the intention of printing or painting these processed images back onto another canvas.

Many of my pieces are emotional expressions in paint. Others are the natural abstractions also in paint, and some represent and connect both the green and growing imperfections and the abstracted natural states, together with the emotional complexities and paths of life. Other pieces remain as the raw photographs in their original state. I sometimes use my photographs for inspiration and other times I just paint straight onto the canvas with no plan. So, you could say I work in an unstructured way, with no intention, as often I do not know the meaning of the painting, or what it is reflecting until a while after it is finished.

Recently, I have been taking numerous photographs of natural forms and presenting them in an abstract collage arrangement which allows me to lean towards a more popular contemporary style. I am 50 and I belong to a newly invented culture in England called 'middle youth', which means life is primarily fun. :o)