About Lou

I am an Edinburgh based printmaker and artist. I have exhibited drawings, prints and mixed media work throughout the UK. Since 2015 I have focused on printmaking, and in particular work in relief printing with lino and in screen printing.  I studied printmaking at Leith School of Art and I’m a member at Edinburgh Printmakers. I’m currently studying for a PhD in theology through printmaking as a creative practice at the University of Glasgow. I also have an online teaching presence on YouTube where I share colourful and calming art projects.

The foundation of my work is in drawing; with completed works being created primarily in screen print. Gold is a repeated theme in my work for its symbolism, and many prints feature gold leaf work. I begin each work with a series of drawings, setting ‘starting conditions’ or ‘axioms’, then describing a set of ‘rules’ that expand from one mark, to many, to become patterns defining complex forms. I’ve used these to visually model ideas; in particular ideas around economic and social justice, debt relief and ideas of jubilee. The influence of my academic history in theology and mathematics is reflected in my artwork. My recent work looks at economic trends and policies in the light of historic understandings of debt, wealth and prophetic criticism of economic inequality.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Royal Watercolour Society Open

2022 REVERB Visual Arts Scotland

2021 ADJUST/ADAPT Visual Arts Scotland

2020 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair

2019-2020 SSA/VAS Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

2019-2020 UTOPIA Society of Scottish Artists, Dumfries and Kirkcudbright

2019 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition

2019 Printfest Ulverston

2019 ALIGHT Visual Arts Scotland, Edinburgh

2018 National Original Print Exhibition, London

2018 RSA Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

2018 Chaiya Art Awards, OXO Tower Wharf, London

2017 World Turned Upside Down, St Edmund’s, Roundhay, Leeds

2016 119th Exhibition of the Society of Scottish Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

2016 Colour Therapy, The Tide Art Gallery, Portobello, Edinburgh

2016 Leith School of Art Summer Exhibition, Edinburgh

2016 Your Deeds Don’t Define You, The Holy Biscuit, Newcastle

2014 Ash, 35 Chapel Walk, Sheffield

2012 ADVENTurous, Left Bank, Leeds

Solo Exhibitions

2023 Glasgow University Memorial Chapel

2022 NOMAS Projects, Dundee

2022 Axiomatic Worlds, Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh

2018 The Bike Shed, Inverness

2015 Illumination, Tubestation and Zeath Gallery, Polzeath

2014 The Well Cafe, Edinburgh

Publications

2018 ‘Where is God in our 21st Century World’, Instant Apostle.

2015 ‘Dreaming of God’, Connexion Magazine, Autumn 2015

Curatorial Projects

2017 EducAID Sweet Salone, Chaplaincy Centre, University of Edinburgh

2014 (Re)Create: Made in Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh Methodist Church Gallery

2012 We Stitch Angry, Amos Trust and Greenbelt Festival

2012 Two Cities Photography Exhibition, YMCA Edinburgh

Education

2017 – Current PhD Theology Through Creative Practice (Printmaking), Glasgow University

2015 – 2016 Printmaking, Leith School of Art