Artist Statement

France has been a leitmotif running through my life. From language classes at the age of seven to majoring in French Literature at college its fascination has never waned. In 2006 my husband and I traveled in Normandy and Provence. As a colorist it was pilgrimage to a location whose natural and man-made hues inspired a revolution in painting and how we see color. The French Landscape series is an homage to a place that has ignited the imagination of so many of us.

Bio

Louise Sennesh began her professional life as a physician specializing in Psychiatry. She retired in 1988 from the practice of medicine to embark on a career in art which had always been a part of her life. She first studied under her mother, Freda Reiter, a nationally recognized courtroom artist for ABC Television. Even in medical school she supplemented her studies with detailed anatomical drawings. In her psychiatric practice she frequently used drawing as a therapeutic tool with children.

Eventually she recognized the need to devote herself to art in order to understand it more deeply. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from George Washington University in 1997. She won two awards for drawing, one of which was the Alfred N. Alfandre Purchase Prize.

After graduate school she worked as a portraitist taking on a number of private commissions. Unfortunately, it was the rare patron who was willing to risk experimentation with texture and challenging color. She gravitated more and more to subjects that would allow her this freedom. Lately she has returned to the figure but is experimenting with using it as a basis for abstract forms.

Always fascinated by science she continues exploring anatomy and botany on her own. She frequently uses these preliminary studies for her more abstract fine art. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylic, gouache, watercolor, colored pencil, graphite, and pen and ink. She is an avid gardener and one of her painted gardens has hung in the American Embassy in San Salvador.

Although she works in a wide variety of media she is currently experimenting with acrylic paint on highly textured canvases and paper. This technique intensifies and enriches a piece's color by allowing underlying layers to peek through to the surface. In addition, texture creates rhythm and energy in the work. Her paintings have been seen in a number of galleries located in Virginia, New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey.

CV

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (*SOLO SHOWS)

2010 Orchard Gallery, Bethesda, Maryland
2008 Orchard Gallery, Bethesda, Maryland
2007 Art in the Atrium, Falls Church, Virginia
2006 Art in the Atrium, Falls Church, Virginia
2004 Art in the Atrium, Falls Church, Virginia
Covington and Burling, Washington, DC
2003 Art in the Atrium, Falls Church, Virginia
2003 Dega Gallery, McLean, Virginia
2002 Art Effects Gallery, Philadelphia
2002 Sagemore Gallery, Ocean City, New Jersey
2001 Ann Jacob Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
2000 Art in Embassies Program- El Salvador Embassy
2000 Stephen Feinman Fine Arts, New York, New York
2000 *Emerson Gallery of the McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, Virginia
1999 *Flowers, Plants, Etc., McLean, Virginia
1995-97 Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
1996 Abbott’s Gallery, Mclean, Virginia
1991 *Greenspring Farm Park, Annandale, Virginia

AWARDS AND HONORS

1997 Honorable Mention- George Washington University
1996 Robert N. Alfandre Purchase Prize in Drawing, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

PORTRAIT COMMISSIONS

Dr. and Mrs. Martin Prosky, Fairfax, Virginia
Dr and Mrs. John Feigert, McLean, Virginia
Mr. and Mrs. Hardock, McLean, Virginia
Dr. Jane Geltner, McLean, Virginia
Dr and Mrs. Roy Bevridge, Bethesda, Maryland

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

Ann and David Frankel, Falls Church, Virginia
Valerie and Joel Fisher, Annandale, Virginia
John and Joan Miller, McLean, Virginia
George and Marielle Magnant, Falls Church, Virginia
Yetta Berkeley, New York, New York

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Linda Whipple, "Like Mother, Like Daughter," Franklin and Marshall, Autumn, 1999.
Alice Ross, "Quest for Color," Elan, November, 2000.
Daniel Grant, "Marketing for Mature Artists," American Artist, January 2001.

EDUCATION

1995-97 M.F.A. in Painting, George Washington University
1974-78 M.D., Hahnemann Medical College
1971-74 B.A., Franklin and Marshall College