Sculpture & Woodworking

Louisa Elkin sees the world in colour, light, forms and texture: as the late philosopher Alan Watts wrote “…our thoughts and ideas ARE nature, just as much as waves on the ocean and clouds in the sky.” The places where the sea meets the shore and the beauty of the West Coast is an unlimited source of inspiration for her work.

Louisa has sought teachers over the past three decades to extend and expand her practice. She completed a Bachelor of Education specializing in Visual Arts Education and then went on to study at the Victoria College of Art completing a Summer Immersion Program as well as many courses in painting, drawing, design, printmaking and sculpture. She later studied with Bill Porteous learning methods of life drawing and abstraction, and with an accomplished and well-known portrait painter, David Goatley, to extend her skills in painting portraits. She has explored ecology and the natural world and integrated her beliefs into her life, her family, her teaching and her painting practice.

“Sandscapes” is the title of a body of work exploring the forms, the light, the textures and the interconnectedness of the sea with stone. The movements of waves and the natural sculptures in sandstone, created gently over time, underline for the artist the importance of living as a part of the natural world rather than above it or apart from it.