Louise Winant
Louise Winant
Artist Statement
I have painted for as long as I can remember. When I was twelve I set up a bowl of apples in my room and painted it until the apples rotted and then I got new apples. For me, primarily, the act of painting is my first love. Colors and mixing a myriad of changing hues excite my need to paint. I find that I am happiest when painting.
Generally my subject matter grows out of a pure enjoyment in mixing and creating different color relationships. It is about as basic a motivation as is possible. The paint is the dirt, so to speak, of my current work. My paintings grow, rooted to my inner mullings, thoughts, fears, hopes etc. I do desire to create pictures expressing certain human qualities that are universal, common and readily accessible to those who view my work.
Painting in a realistic style, in a small space, with small brushes, developed out of the dictates of my life as a mother. Raising children left only a broken time frame in which to indulge my creativity. I found myself being content with small strokes of color which I could easily leave and then return to later. When younger, I painted using large colorful strokes, pure, color filled expressions of emotion. In reality the paintings I do now are not so different. I see them now as the fertilizer of my current work. At the time, I had little life experience yet a great love of painting such that pure expression made sense. The content was the act of painting. But today, having raised my family, facing the day-to-day trials, stresses and crises of family life, chronic Lyme disease, job losses, and just living in our crazy and beautiful world, I desire to create pictures that speak to equally to the heart and the mind. Painting, using narrative and symbolic elements allows me to reflect and express those inexpressible experiences that have shaped my life thus far.
While my works are almost entirely created in studio they reflect those things and places that I know personally and intimately, suburban fields, ocean waves, backyard fires, little birds and other common scenes. I employ lots of glazing in order to achieve the depth of color that I desire and am in no rush to end a painting. Often I find that the meaning of a picture doesn’t emerge anyway, until some passage of time. They are like little stories. Sometimes a painting will be hanging around for many months before I know its resolution and it’s meaning becomes clear. I don’t tell a painting what it should be but rather it reveals itself to me. When my children were young I developed a love for children’s picture books and the storytelling ability of children’s art. I think my attachment to those stories still influences my work.
There is the old expression that “One is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth” yet there are certain exceptions. Parenting is an obvious one and then there is of course the art of creation. Entering into the creative process of art involves a life-giving generation, a unique creation of a unique person at a unique time.
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Louise Winant
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Solo Exhibitions
The Firehouse Art Center 2017
(community center for the arts)
Newburyport, MA
“Seasons and Innocence”
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One Biotech at University Place 2005
Worcester, MA
“Recent Work”
Marblehead Arts Association 1998
“Winant, Winant, Winant”
Group Shows
Bromfield Gallery
Juried Invitational
August, 2024
"Surface"
show title: What Lies Beneath
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Small Stones Art Festival
Juried Invitational
Grafton, Ma 2024
Third Prize, "Field Study"
Peoples Choice Award, "Volition"
Fountain Street Annex Fellows Award
Boston, MA 2023
Allied Artists of America
Juried Invitational 2022
Hosted by
Salmagundi Art Club Ny, Ny
Hopkington Center for the Arts
"Arts in Bloom" Juried Invitational 2021
Honorable Mention "Trust"
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Marblehead Arts association
First Annual National Juried Invitational 2021
"Variations"
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Hopkington Center For The Arts
“Arts In Bloom”
Juried invitational, 2020
Attleboro Art Museum Members Show
Juried Invitational, 2020
Attleboro Art Museum
Attleboro, MA
National Juried Invitational, 2019
“Opposites”
Juror Caitee Hoglund, Gallery Director, 13FOREST Gallery
Gallery 263
Cambridge, MA
National Group Juried Invitational, 2019
“Light Vs Dark”
Juror Ruth Erickson, current Mannion Family Curator
at the institute of contemporary Art in Boston MA since 2017
Salmagundi Art Club 2018 NY, NY
“40th Annual Painting, Sculpture and Graphics Exhibition
for Non-Members”
Juried Invitational, 2018
Katlan Family Seascape Award
Certificate of Merit for outstanding work (SCUNY)
Juror of awards William L Coleman,
Associate curator of American Art at the Newark Museum
Concord Art Association
“Juried Group Exhibition Open Invitational”
2018
Salmagundi Art Club NY, NY
“39th Annual Painting, Sculpture and Graphics Exhibition
for Non-Members”, 2018
Juried Invitational
Hopkington Center for the Arts
“Arts in Bloom” 2017
Juried invitational
Hopkington Center for The Arts
“Arts in Bloom”
2nd prize, 2016
Juror of awards Katherine French, Director emerita
Danforth Art Museum ,
Gallery director of Catamount Arts
Marlborough Art Association 2015
Group juried Invitational Exhibition
Education
BFA In Painting
1981-1984
MA College of Art
1978-1981
Art and Psychology
Salem State College
Permanent collection
Salem State University, Salem MA
Millbury Federal Credit Union, Millbury, MA
private collections throughout New England
Biography
Louise Winant was born in 1960 and is a native of New England, studied Art and Psychology at Salem State University before completing her fine art studies at MA College Art in 1984, where she received her BFA in painting. After raising her family, she returned to making art and is currently working in oil. She is married to artist/designer Alvin Winant and resides in central MA. Although Her roots are coastal ME and MA, her pictures draw on themes ranging from crashing waves to mundane wetlands to colorful fields. Her pictures have been described as both “spiritual and emotive”.