View a selection of the videos that showcase the Scenic Rim Region.
Louise Grove Wiechers – Painting, printmaking and mixed media
19-20 May, 2012
Louise Grove Weichers
Studio:
16 Long Rd, Eagle Heights
Ph: 0437 938 613
What you’ll see:
South African-born artist, Louise Grove Wiechers, has called Australia and Tamborine Mountain home for the past three years. She’s worked as a professional artist for the past 15 years and combines her work as an art teacher with a steady stream of commissions for her collection of landscape and still life paintings. Louise’s work can often be seen in south-east Queensland display homes as she is often commissioned by interior decorators to create a series of art to fill the walls of new homes. Louise enjoys painting the glorious vistas and landscapes which surround her Scenic Rim home.
Louise Grove Wiechers (pronounced Vickers) says her new found home in the Scenic Rim is a rich tapestry of inspiration for an artist. Her inspiration comes from her home on Tamborine Mountain and the surrounding landscapes of the Scenic Rim region.
It’s a very different landscape to her native home in South Africa and Louise is enjoying putting her vision on canvas.
“I take vignettes from the landscape and eliminate the things that don’t speak to me,” she says.
“I don’t do realism as such, I paint a dream, the ideal existence – modernism with a touch of surrealism.
“I capture the ideal pastoral experience by simplifying elements to their basics, leaving only the impression of the perceived vision.
SIMPLIFY ELEMENTS
“I also do a lot of abstract paintings for the commercial market and have been doing lots of exhibitions recently. My abstract works reflect the simplification of shapes and textures found in the natural world, leaving only the essential impression.
“I also do a lot of display homes, I am commissioned to do paintings for an empty home. I design the paintings to match the colour schemes and the finishes.
“I love working with lots of texture and creating something really vibrant. Often with monotone interiors you need that colour, that ‘Wow’.
“The paintings are displayed in the homes for two years and then they are sold with the house. It’s been quite busy.”
Louise grew up in a town outside Johannesburg and when her brother moved to Australia in 2000 was regularly encouraged by him to move Down Under.
She and her husband arrived to Australia in 2005 and quickly found the place they now call home at Tamborine Mountain. They built a house and a large art studio called The Red Barn Studio from which Louise not only paints but also runs regular art classes.
RED BARN STUDIO
She holds a degree in Fine Arts and a teaching diploma and spent three years working as a high school arts teacher and university lecturer in South Africa.
She’s been painting professionally for 15 years and her work is exhibited around the world.
“I love painting landscapes,” says Louise.
“It’s quite uncommon for girls to do landscape, it’s very rare. I love landscapes and I love painting the environment – this whole area around here is rich.”
Louise says she enjoys passing on her love of painting to others via the workshops she holds in her home studio. But she says there’s nothing traditional about her sessions which are about encouraging students to experiment and play with colour, texture and style.
“Moving to Australia has been creatively interesting for me,” she says.
SEASCAPES
‘I’ve done seascapes since being here and I never used to do that in South Africa – I love it.
“I love the landscape here – the green, the light, the undulations, the valleys, the mist in the mornings.
“I take images around Kalbar and Boonah and then I come back here and play with them in Photoshop, get rid of the humble and then work in my studio to paint.
“I do work outdoors but it’s a challenge with the flies and the wasps.”
For Open Studios Louise plans to display a range of her artwork and will have paintings at various stages of completion on show in her Red Barn Studio. She will also have a range of works available for sale.
Louise supplies her work to galleries in the UK, South Africa and Australia and has held works back to have available during Open Studios.
“I treat my art like a business,” she says.
“On Monday morning I set out my plan for the week, what I want to do. I like to keep it interesting for myself by working on lots of different things as well as my own private artwork, inner soul stuff.”