Louise Garrett is a mixed media painter and sketcher, particularly of landscape and urban spaces; she is a current administrator/organiser of the Urban Sketchers (Yorkshire) Group.
Louise studied for a BA Combined Arts degree at the University of Leeds (Bretton Hall), graduating in 1979. She worked as a community artist, then as an art therapist, before working as a social worker and trainer. When she retired from social work she was able to devote more time to her drawing and painting interests.
She works on location sketching the chosen scene, often choosing an urban or rural location within the Bradford district, then working on these in her studio. Louise works with a range of art medium to capture and create the emotional response she felt whilst observing and capturing the scene. The winter scene below on Harden Moor, ‘Muddy Track’, for example, included acrylic paint and Polyfilla to capture the tyre-tracked churned ground alongside the ditch and to add texture to the canvas.
‘Muddy Tracks’. In a private collection.
Since 2018 Louise has been an administrator, alongside an artist colleague, of the Urban Sketchers Yorkshire Group, which was established in 2010. Members of the group visit town and urban locations around Yorkshire. She says of the Group – and her own response to architecture:
We sketch out on location, sharing our love of drawing and learning from one another … You look a bit slower. You stand and stare at a building for 15 minutes and you never do that otherwise. Stand and really look slowly and you notice some really incredible details. Those little details above eye level, above the modern shops, and there they all are – just fantastic.
Bradford City Hall. Image: Louise Garrett; see contact details below.
Louise has been commissioned to deliver a number of ‘sketching on the spot’ workshops in collaboration with (at different times) the Cliffe Castle Support Group, Bradford District Parks, Bradford Museums and Galleries, and the Baildon ‘Walkers Are Welcome’ group.
Louise in action at Dean Clough, Halifax.
Louise’s work has been widely exhibited at a range of venues and shows across the Yorkshire region, and beyond. These have included the Holmfirth Art Week; Saltaire Arts Trail; Keighley Creative Group Exhibition (Bradford Industrial Museum); both the Bradford and Calderdale Open; Pintar Rapido Chelsea Town Hall, London; The Bingley Gallery; and the ‘Silsden in Art’ Exhibition. She has also been a prize-winner with The Artist Magazine: Summer Sketchbook Challenge, 2018.
‘Four Pines’ Bettys Wood, St. Ives, Bingley. In a private collection.
Artist Contact: Louise Garrett