Louise Mair is a Scottish-born multi-disciplined artist living and working in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

‘Integration’

''Integration" from the Latin root meaning " to make whole" explores themes of belonging, transition and acceptance. The paintings emerge from the tension between these places- the landscape that forms us, the one we inhabit now and the one we are shaping.

Each painting is built through a process of layering; early layers are informed by memory rather than direct observation and are loosely, energetically created. These are then covered and worked on with more layers, scraping back paint, revealing/exposing earlier marks or spaces in time.

The square format of each painting is used to disrupt the traditional portrait/landscape expectations, leaving us with a contained field where geographies must co-exist. A space of negotiation rather than depiction. 

Alongside the theme of past and present, there is of course, the question of future, the third element: the viewer. The landscapes are intentionally open and unresolved, inviting each person’s lived experience to enter the painting.