A NEW solo exhibition is set to go on display at Fisherton Mill next month.

Artist Louise Bougourd’s collection of contemporary abstract landscapes – titled ‘Within’ – is an exploration of Louise’s responses to the natural world, the ever-changing landscape, skies full of promise or threat – sometimes menacing but always exciting.

Louise said she spends many hours walking with her sketchbook in her backpack alone in nature, “feeling minuscule in the vastness of our natural world, views stretching into veils of mist as they disappear miles away in the distance”.

Louise’s artistic process always begins in the landscape, working quickly and intuitively to record her emotional response to place and feeling; mark-making is fluid, spontaneous often using found objects, twigs, bracken and grass.

She makes many sketches as she absorbs the atmosphere, the elemental rawness of the natural world.

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Back in the studio the process is considered, meditative and reflective.

Louise uses water-based media or oil paint creating sweeping marks across the surface with a large brush, this process permits her to remain free and expressive from the beginning.

Referring initially to her sketchbooks she finds the process soon takes on its own life leading in a direction of discovery founded in memory and experience.

Louise’s evocative landscapes provoke feelings of reflection, a response in time rather than having a direct link to place, encouraging thoughtful interpretation from the viewer.

Those wanting to meet the artist can head to the Main Gallery on Saturday, May 17 and Saturday, June 14 from 10am to 4pm, where Louise will be demonstrating her techniques.