A recycled art studio

It is every artist's dream to have their own studio.

A door to close at the end of the day. No cleaning up.
No emergency floor clean-ups half way through the painting session.

Last year I was lucky enough to achieve this dream.
As some of you already know, we live on 3 acres with ridiculously large and beautiful trees.
The spot we found for the studio sits between Jacarandas, Liquid Ambers, a Golden Elm and an ancient Cypress pine.
It was not our first quirky building project and we had already developed our building style.

This style is based on recycling as many materials as possible.
For the studio we collected gorgeous Art Deco lead-light windows and doors.
A friend donated a stunning front door complete with colourful stained glass magpies...perfect for our property.

The Piece De Resistance was the huge arched jarrah window, rescued from the old bakery in the seaside town of Mandurah. Also known as "The Husband Killer"... over 3 metres wide and quite a challenge to move!

Furnished with vintage pieces. One of my favourite things is the chandelier adorned with tiny brass squirrels. I have eclectic taste!

*Charcoal drawing of my daughter, Zoe on the easel.

I LOVE my studio!
It is definitely my "Happy Place"
Flooded with natural light and echoing with bird song.
Lucky me.

Louise x

P.S. Would you be interested in a visit to my studio? Please email me if you are interested: louisethorpe620@gmail.com

How I didn’t get the pony but i did learn to draw one.

When I was a child there was something I needed SO badly, something that was missing from my life.

Yes, you have probably guessed it...a pony. It was never going to happen. Not for another 20 years in a far off land, but that is another story. So I rode my bike into the countryside to find a pony to pat and read all the pony books. For a while I mucked out a million (well it seemed like it) stables in the snow at the local riding school in return for the occasional ride on the horse that none of the paying clients wanted to get on.

When I was eight I was given a book for Christmas. "How to Draw Horses" (My brother reminded me recently that he was given "How to draw Ships"...he now has a boat) Oh those childhood influences!

So I taught myself to draw horses. I think I drew every horse in the book. My favourite was the Circus Pony with the long tail and mane. Also in the book there was a little trick where you started with 4 circles and some straight lines.

It still works.

About 15 years ago my husband came home with a box of chalk pastels as a surprise. Once again I taught myself and started doing colourful horse racing paintings. I never photographed these but kept my favourite one and gave 3 to a friend who has framed them and put them on her wall. I stopped painting after a couple of years and didn't start again until February 2017.

This time I wanted to paint human faces. I became hooked and have not looked back. But those horses worm their way in again every so often. I will always love to paint and draw them.

Oh and by the way; the next year I was given "Sketching The Ballet" You might find some dancers in my portfolio too.

Louise x

*If you love the painting above "Andulusia" and would like to see it on your wall I have limited edition Giclee prints available. Beautifully printed on archival paper with archival inks. Numbered and signed.

Please email me if you are interested: louisethorpe620@gmail.com