Meet the Maker: Louise Oswald

Can you describe your creative work in a few sentences?

What’s your favourite medium to create with?

I work mainly with acrylic paints and mediums. It wasn’t an instant love for me, I really had to play a lot with acrylic at first. I felt like I was fighting with it and the paint wouldn’t do what I expected it to do but out of that frustration I started to like some of the ‘mistakes’ and they seem to have developed into techniques that I now use in every painting. It’s now the medium that I’m most comfortable with.

Can you share a programme/art supply brand/item you love working with?

I manipulate the paint a lot so I tend to have a paintbrush in one hand and a spray bottle in the other. I use cheap flat brushes as I don’t look after them very well and put them through a lot and I also use the more affordable brands of paint. I like the Sennelier pouches. I’m still playing around with my handmade pigments and at the moment I’m mixing them with Bindex by Pebeo, again it’s very affordable so I don’t feel like I have to be sparing with it.

Do you create every day? If so, do you have a set time to create?

Unfortunately, I don’t!  I would love to create every day and be more disciplined, perhaps one day when family life is a little less demanding. But I’m also aware that time away from the studio is where I daydream about the work I want to do so perhaps that’s actually an important part of my process.

Do you have a ritual around creating?

Yes, I do! I enjoy preparing the surface, whether it’s paper or canvas, I like to get a good few layers of gesso down. It’s definitely a ritual, almost like limbering up but also putting care into the piece before I begin to paint it.

Also, I always work with the same radio station on, BBC 6Music, there’s something nice about having the same people in your ear, it’s like having a routine and workmates! 

What’s your favourite part about your creative work?

The freedom to create whatever I want to create. I experienced that freedom at art college but then went on to work in the film industry where I felt my creativity was underutilised, squashed even.  I love that I now have the freedom to decide how a painting develops and it’s all my own work.

What’s your least favourite part about your creative work?

That I work on my own! It would be nice to have a shared studio, and people around to bounce ideas with, it can get a bit lonely in my back garden studio. But for now, it works nicely around family life, I can dip in and out when I do have pockets of time.

What would you tell your younger self about your creative work?

To just trust that it’s always there. It can take whatever twists and turns life throws at you, just give it some attention when it’s nagging, it’s trying to do you a favour!

Do you create with a certain person/target group in mind?

I live in St Andrews, Scotland which is famous for its university (where Wills met Kate) and for being ‘the home of golf’. We have a lot of visitors to our little town who’ve really made a pilgrimage to be here so I love to think that with my rock pigment paintings they can take a little piece of Scotland back to their hometown.

I recently had a commission for a bride and groom who were getting married but live in Ireland. I went looking for pigment rocks close to their wedding venue, it was such a lovely thing to do and a really meaningful gift for the couple. I’d like to do more commissions like this.

Where can people find you and your work?