Louise Burston, 'Egg Bunny'

As starting points for paintings, I work from a variety of source material such as newspaper cuttings, eBay, old photographs, TV stills and postcards. My paintings aim to convey a certain haunted-ness that invites the viewer to reflect on the passing of time and where we find ourselves in the present – the fragility and finiteness of everything.  

Egg Bunny and Tools of her Trade are painted from objects for sale on eBay. These passed up objects once had a role of their own, in a work or domestic space. By painting them my intention was to suspend them in time, offering them a renewed visibility and meaning through the luminosity of the paint application. Executed over time, I started with a wet layer of paint, drawing in and wiping back with a soft cloth to reveal the surface of the board. Subsequently I applied thin glazes of colour, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next. 

Born in Cardiff, Louise Burston now lives and paints in her studio in Burry Port, West Wales.  Louise’s exhibits regularly in London and Wales, including Townhouse E1, Discerning Eye, and the RA Summer show. She was recently shortlisted for the Beep painting prize 2024 at Elysium Gallery in Swansea, where she was also exhibiting artist for ‘Art in the Bar’. Her work is in public and private collections.