b. 1953
Landscape and Still Life
Louisa McElwain is a plein-aire impressionist whose favorite subjects are her native New Mexico sky and landscape. Not satisfied simply in painting the elements of a landscape, she actually incorporates them physically into her works. In her own words, she states, "During the process of painting large canvases outdoors, the interaction with Nature introduces insects, particles of plants and soil into the paint. To acknowledge the simultaneous levels of reality that surround me, I sometimes deliberately introduce elements into the paint like bits of broken beer bottle, bone, fur, or charred wood. Anything stuck to the motif, the images, the illusions, the beauty of landscape, I never want to forget that what I am looking at is paint on canvas."
Louisa received her BFA degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Since then she has been in numerous group exhibitions and her work is in many private and corporate collections including the Tucson Museum of Art, AT & T, Pepsi-Cola, Nokia and the University of Pennsylvania.
Her work has also been featured in a variety of publications, among them Time Magazine, Southwest Art magazine and the Denver Post.
Selected Exhibitions
2007-2008 - Booth Western Art Museum, Atlanta, GA "21st Century Regionalists: Art of the New West."
2007 - Arizona: A Millennium of Arizona Art, Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2007 - Tucson Museum of Art, "Painters of the Grand Canyon"
2006 - New Haven Art Center, New Haven, CT "Particular Places" Honorable Mention
2006 - "Landscapes of New Mexico" book debut, Santa Fe, NM
2005 - Phippen Museum, Prescott, AZ "Homecoming: Outside the West"
2004 - Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ "100 Years-Painting the Grand Canyon"
2004 - NM Wilderness Alliance, "Wildlands Painted!"
2004 - Medicine Man, Santa Fe, NM "Let Me Enjoy the Earth"
2004 - SEGI Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ "Terra Cognita"
2003-4 - Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA "The Wild West"
2003 - Medicine Man, Tucson, AZ "Along the Pilgrims' Path"
2002 - Medicine Man, Tucson, AZ and Santa Fe, NM "Audience with a Cloud"
2001 - Medicine Man, Tucson, AZ "Flights of Enchantment"
1997, 1995 - Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ "Women Artists of the West"
1995 - Ian Lewis, Scottsdale, AZ "Western Academy of Women Artists"
1995 - Hampshire College, Amherst, MA "25th Year, Alumni Exhibition"
1993 - Mongerson-Wunderlich, Chicago, IL
1993 - San Juan College, Farmington, NM "McElwain Paints New Mexico"
1988 - Southwest-East, London, England
1977-1975 - BFA Program Exhibitions, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
1975-1969 - Weston Arts and Crafts Association Shows, Weston, MA
Selected Collections
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
St. Vincent Hospital, Santa Fe, NM
Pepsi-Cola, CA
AT&T, CA
Nokia, TX
INA Corp., PA
Peat Marwick, CA
NATO Headquarters, Brussels
University of Texas Law School, Austin, TX
Philadelphia Zoological Society
American Embassies: Sanaa, Bogota, Singapore, Bahrain
University of Pennsylvania, PA
Selected Publications and Credits
Focus Santa Fe, May, 2005 "Exploring the Mysteries of Sensation in the Landscape" Wolfgang Mabry
Rio Grande Sun, Oct 2002 "Cuarteles Painter Likes to Shovel it on" Joe Czarek
Southwest Art, Feb, 2002,"New Mexico Regionalists" Gussie Fauntleroy
Art Talk, Feb. 2002 featured artist
New American Paintings, winner, Oct 2000
Southwest Art, cover February 2000 "A Life in Full" Gussie Fauntleroy
Focus Santa Fe, 1997 "Dancing to the Tempo of the Evolving Day" Charlotte Berney
Southwest Art, 1993 "Satisfying Surfaces" Sally Eauclaire
The New Mexican, 1993 "Exploring the Wild Places, Palette Knife in Hand" Gussue Fauntleroy
Southwest Profile, 1992 cover "Sensuous and Delicious Color" John Villani
Santa Fean Magazine, 1992 "Palette Knife Wizardry" Ralph Luce
The New Mexican, 1991 "McElwain's Paintings Resonate w. Nature's Unadorned Beauty"
The New Mexican, 1991
