Lou has been printmaking since 2015 and specialises in screen print, primarily geometric abstract work with gold leaf, conceptual prints exploring themes of equality, justice and environment, and architectural works responding to the urban environment.
These prints were inspired by seeds lying in the cold ground during winter, waiting for the temperature to rise and the conditions to be right to begin their journey towards the light. There are elements here of the care gardeners and farmers take to create the best conditions for their seeds, so the regular lines and build-up of textures suggests the preparations made to the soil and the careful selection and planting. These prints were designed at a time of creative uncertainty and reflect the hope that careful preparation and planning may yield creative rewards. They are also a reminder that there is life even where you can see no progress and that sometimes it is better to hold on to your energy reserves until the conditions are right for germination than to push forward into a harsh frost.
A multi-year creative practice project culminating in a series of prints exploring the concepts of debt forgiveness on financial systems through printmaking. Taking in economic and biblical ethics and ideas such as sustainability, capitalist realism and utopian thinking along the way.
Each print responds to a range of ideas in contemporary economics paired with personal reflections and theological engagement with Hebrew scriptures and gospel accounts regarding money and debt.
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.
Ideas are worked out in pen on tracing paper before being transferred to screen and printed using water based inks and gold or copper leaf.
A collection of Screen Prints in standard sizes and at affordable prices. Designed to work together as part of a gallery wall, prints are available in multiple sizes and colours.
This collection began in 2020 as a response to the restrictions of Covid. The prints were designed so that I could make them and distribute them from my home studio. The themes are about finding joy and peace in moments of beauty, in nature and in stillness.
A collection of urban inspired landscapes. I began making these early in my printmaking career as commissions for special places, and developed them into a range of cityscape prints using gold leaf to highlight the sun falling on buildings and across paths. Most of these prints are of Edinburgh and Leith where I’m currently living.
I began my art career making textile art and painting with acrylics but soon developed an interest in print. I took a printmaking course at Leith School of Art where I fell in love with screen printing and have been developing my skills in that medium in my home studio and at Edinburgh Printmakers ever since. In 2025, I graduated with a creative practice PhD from the University of Glasgow that is in Theology, but uses printmaking, particularly screen printing, as the research medium.
In 2020, I began making online tutorials in all kinds of art media, but watercolour was the one that resonated most strongly with my viewers and with me and I’ve been painting with it ever since; most recently using it to paint geometric patterns and developing a library of pattern painting and drawing tutorials.
I love working with varied creative challenges, so work in collections with consistent themes. This allows me to switch between creating large abstract conceptual works and developing more playful and accessible print collections. I’ve also taken on an illustration project, varied curatorial challenges and had my work featured in magazines and on book covers.
2025 For Love or Money with the Arienas Collective at St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh
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
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
2018 ‘Where is God in our 21st Century World’, Instant Apostle.
2015 ‘Dreaming of God’, Connexion Magazine, Autumn 2015
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
2017 – 2025 PhD Theology Through Creative Practice (Printmaking), Glasgow University
2015 – 2016 Printmaking, Leith School of Art
From May 2024, I’ve been creating a pattern tutorial a month for my paid online supporters. These patterns are often classic patterns from history, and from around the world. Each month, I produce printable outlines, and full video tutorials and from Septmber 2025, these patterns now have a new home at my membership site Lou’s Pattern Library.
You’ll find over 200 art videos over on my YouTube channel. Many of the videos share how to create mindful and calming watercolour paintings. You’ll find lots of abstract and pattern painting projects there as well as more traditional subjects like seascapes, nature and architecture paintings.
