Louise has always looked towards natural history for inspiration. During her degree course in Fine Art Printmaking, she became fascinated by bees and her interest has continued until this day. Louise gets great satisfaction knowing that her artwork is helping spread awareness that bees are under threat from loss of habitat, as a result of modern farming methods and the decline of wild areas.

“Currently my subjects have broadened to include insects and birds. I enjoy using a variety of print techniques, most notably mezzotint, which involves a great deal of time and patience. I am always discovering new ways of combining techniques and I often layer prints as a way to create depth in an image. I enjoy Collagraph and Monoprint in conjunction with mezzotint and often include painting and drawing to create unique results.”

“Mezzotint is an intaglio method of printmaking for creating an original work of art on a sheet of copper, which has been roughened with thousands of tiny dots to create a layer of tone. It was invented in the 1600’s as the first printing method to create an image from these tonal areas of dots rather than the typical drypoints of the time, which were created using line and hatching.”