louise knowles - artist
Based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Lou Knowles is a painter drawn to colour, texture and the possibilities of paint. Since the late 1990s, she has worked predominantly in oils, while a love of pattern and collage has also become an important part of her practice.
Lou is heavily influenced by her surroundings — the spaces, objects and landscapes that make up everyday life. She is particularly fascinated by spatial relationships and, most importantly, by negative space: the quiet areas that give shape and meaning to what surrounds them. It is within these parameters that her work evolves. Abstraction has become her newest focus and challenge.
artist statement
“As I explore abstraction in my art practice, I have become increasingly aware that life itself is a series of abstract experiences. Our minds instinctively try to rationalise what happens around us, even when some experiences are simply irrational or beyond explanation.
Change can turn your world upside down, in both positive and negative ways. In the midst of an already full life, it is easy for everything to become chaotic as we juggle the many things that demand our attention.
For me, painting provides a way to slow that process down. Expressing feelings through colour and texture has become an important tool. Putting paint onto a surface gives me time to think, to reflect and to deconstruct my reactions to particular events and experiences.
Colour has always been central to my process. I build layers of colour, creating texture and depth as the painting develops. Each layer carries traces of what came before it, allowing the viewer to sense the passage of time and witness something of the journey beneath the surface.
Light, colour and shadow are recurring elements in my work, acting as metaphors for life, love and loss. Through abstraction, I am interested in capturing not necessarily what a moment looked like, but how it felt”
prizes
Finalist Lane Cove Art Award , September 2026
Finalist Inside This Box Art Prize, The Corner Store Gallery, February 2026
Finalist Ewart Prize, Willoughby Workshop, September 2025
Finalist KAAF Art Prize October 2024
Finalist Ewart Prize, Willoughby Workshop, September 2024
Finalist 9x5 Landscape Prize Woollahra Waverley Art School November 2024
Finalist National Contemporary Art Prize 2024
Finalist North Sydney Art Prize, Coal Loader, Waverton. May 2024
Finalist 9x5 Landscape Prize Woollahra Waverley Art School November 2023
Finalist 40under40prize , Sketch Go Gallery, September 2023
Finalist Fifty Squared Art Prize, Brunswick St Gallery, Victoria, June 2022
Finalist Ewart Prize, Willoughby Workshop, May 2022
Finalist Small Works Art Prize, Brunswick St Gallery, Victoria, January 2022
Winner, Little Things Art Prize 2021 Saint Cloche, Paddington (wall works category)
exhibitions
'Everything the Land Remembered', Weswal Gallery, Group Show, May 2026
'Different Views, Interpreting Landscape' Group Show, Garden Gallery, Botanic Garden, Sydney, May 2026
'Landscape at Goonoo Goonoo' Ewart Gallery, Group Show, Willoughby Arts Centre, February 2026
'SKY' Solo Show Studio Gallery Group, September 2025
'Special Release - Movements in the Sky' Michael Reid Northern Beaches, November 2024
'Small - a group exhibition' Stala Contemporary Art Gallery and Projects, September 2024
'Creative Open' Michael Reid Northern Beaches, August 2024
'Sand and Stone' Michael Reid Northern Beaches, April 2024
'Ocean Sounds' Michael Reid Northern Beaches, February 2023
'Ocean Pools' Brunswick St Gallery, Victoria, Sept/Oct 2022
Group Abstract Show Brick Lane Gallery, London UK, June 2022
'Tree Sounds' Special Mini Release, Michael Reid Northern Beaches, May 2022
'Spring forward, no falling back' The Wellington Gallery, Group Show, October 2021
Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery, Paddington, September 2021
Group Show Be Brave Gallery, Avalon, December 2019
'New Paintings' Institute of Architects, Potts Point, Solo August 2008
'Clontarf' Red Door Gallery, Summer Hill, Solo June 2006