Based in the Ouseburn cultural quarter in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Louise Bradley works from life or en plein air. Her work is inspired by the colour, patterns, rhythms, fragility and supremacy of nature.
"Central to my practice are themes of fertility, beauty, reproduction, change and transformation, which I express using plants and flowers as symbols, most of which are grown locally and used seasonally.
Detailed observational drawings from life or found macroscopic images are progressed into hand made papercuts. Abstract patterns are screen-printed using translucent colour, line and layers. Drawing persists in my work as an underpinning medium for its directness, purity and simplicity. Paintings are made from life or en plein air, studies of seasonal plants and flowers or exercises in colour, composition and tone. “Prints can have as many as twenty different layers and I often work in series rather than making an edition of prints, working using different colour harmonies and dissonance and manipulating positioning of different elements within the composition. The prints are designed to seduce, as a flower seduces a bee for pollination and reproduction using colour, scent and form.”
“Her wide range of work indicates her confident draughtsmanship, acute sense of colour, and attention to the nuance of line and life in her subjects”. – Alex Hodby, curator
“…superb print… I especially liked the way you nailed down the composition with the see-through whites. The main print strikes me as an inseparable mixture of the botanical and biological. It strikes me you have achieved a truly universal image here.” – John McLean, artist
Exhibitions
2023 – 2024 The Bowes Museum, Co. Durham, flags commission
2023 Living Still solo show RePUBlic Gallery, Blyth, Northumberland
2023 Drawing is Free, group show, Paris College of Art
2022 Northern Print, Hadrian’s Wall 1900
2019 – present Pineapple Gallery, Bishop Auckland
2019 “Illustrated Garden” Masham Gallery, Masham, North Yorkshire
2018 Process 36, part of Great Exhibition of the North, Ouseburn
2017 Marks, solo show, 36 Lime Street Gallery, Newcastle, part of DRAWING North East
2017 Northern Footprints, Northern Print, Newcastle upon Tyne
2017 ‘Curiouser and Curiouser’ Masham Gallery, Masham, North Yorkshire
2016 -17 The Great Print Exhibition, Rheged, Penrith
2016 Barfoot and Walker/batch, Newcastle upon Tyne
2016 Illustrative and Stitched, Customs House, part of “DRAWING North East” project
2015 Limeline, 36 Lime Street part of “Drawing?” project
2015 Printfest, Ulverston, Cumbria (May)
2014 “If all the World were Paper…” at Northern Print Studio, November
2014 solo show Horror Vacui June/July Customs House Fusion Gallery, South Shields as part of International Print Biennale
2014 solo show July/August “Ragwort, Spurge and Vetch” at Toffee Factory, Newcastle as part of International Print Biennale
2014 “Outside Ink” group show/International Print Biennale
2013 Brighton Art Fair
2013 Printfest, Ulverston
2013 In Bloom – Redearth Gallery, Tiverton, Devon
2012 & 2013 Northern Footprints, Northern Print, Newcastle upon Tyne
2012 Durham Art Gallery, display with John Cecil Stephenson
2012 Story of a Studio, Northern Print, group show
2011 Globe Gallery, Newcastle, group show
Selected Projects as Artist Facilitator in Learning and the Community
- 1997 to present: Artist facilitator with primary and secondary schools, teachers, colleges, universities and community and public groups in the North East and North West of England (University of Northumbria, University of Sunderland, BALTIC, NGCA, Gateshead Arts, Berwick Visual Arts, The Forge, The Big Draw, Northern Gas Networks, Newcastle Arts Development, Action for Children, BAIT, Woodhorn Museum, Helix Arts, The Cultural Spring, Newcastle Arts Centre, Ouseburn Festival, Laing Art Gallery)
- Artist facilitator at Seaton Delaval Hall, summer 2023
- Artist educator with Colostomy UK, online art sessions 2020 – 2021
- Artist working with RVI Great North Childrens’ Hospital patients, painting public sculpture for Wild in Art “Elmer’s Great North Parade” 2019 and “Great North Snowdogs” 2016
- Artist facilitator for DRAWING North East with Uni of Sunderland students 2019
- Artist in School for Berwick Visual Arts/University of Northumbria: Create, Aspire Transform projects Summer 2018, 2019, 2022
- Early Years Teachers’ ‘schema’ CPD sessions at BALTIC 2015 – 2017
- Drawing and Life Drawing Courses, open access, with Gateshead Arts, Lifelong Learning and Newcastle Arts Centre, 1997 – 2023
- Artist for BAIT The Share – Art in Guide Post Social Club Project, Guide Post, Northumberland 2015
- “Constructing Colour” BALTIC -participatory colour installation for Daniel Buren exhibition 2014
- CPD drawing sessions, primary and secondary teachers, North West Cumbria and West Walker Primary, Newcastle 2013/2014
- Lantern Procession for Artichoke/Liverpool Lantern Company at Lumiere Festival, Durham 2011
- Turner Prize Café workshop sessions, BALTIC 2011
- Artisancam promotion project for CLEO (Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online Schools) – drawing workshops 2010 & The Big Face
- Artist, display at V&A “Maharajah” exhibition, working with Action for Children, Walker/London 2009 and the Rodin show at the Royal Academy 2006 (Art Matters)
- Artist with New Writing North “Museum of My Life”: installation at Durham Cathedral April-July 2007
Other Projects
- Drawings and prints commissioned for various hotels
- Artist in Residence at Paperdove card design company, working with designers and making prints, summer 2014
- Artist working with Russ Coleman on Jim Lambie’s concrete installation “Album Pathway” in Glasgow, summer 2014
Visit Shop
I have a collection of beautiful drawings, paintings and prints in my shop, click the button below to see what is available.